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HARVARD 
COLLEGE 
LIBRARY 



VILLAGE LFFE IN AMERIG 



VILLAGE LIFE 

IN 

AMERICA 

i852-i872 

INCLUDING THE PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN 
CIVIL WAR AS TOLD IN THE DIARY OF A 

SCHOOL-GIRL 



BY 



CAROLINE COWLES RICHARDS 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
MARGARiET E. SANGSTER 










NEW YORK 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

• 1912. -' ■ 



tiS jr4(^h^b 






[AH rigkis rsunmd.] 



To 

My dear BroCben, 

JAMES AND JOHN. 

who, bj prooqit and example, 

have encouraged me, 

and, to my beloved sister, 

ANNA, 

whose aith and afifection 

have been my chief inspiration, 

this little volume 

is lovingly inscribed. 



Naples. N.Y. 



CONTENTS 



s 

VACS 



INTRODUCTION, BY MRS MARGARRT £. SANGSTKR . 13 

THE VILLAGES 17 

THE VILLAGERS 18 

TO BRITISH READERS, BY JOHN & MARSH . . . 30 

1852.— FAMILY NOTES— FAMOUS SCHOOL-GIRLS — HOOP 

SKIRTS 21 

1853. — RUNAWAYS— BIBLE STUDY— -ESSAYS— CATECHISM 29 
1854.— LAKE PICNIC— PYRAMID OF BEAUTY— GOVERNOR 

CLARK 39 

1855.— PREACHERS — JAMES ^^^ JOHN — VOTES FOR 

WOMEN 59 

1856.— THE FIRE — SLEIGHING AND PRAYER— FATHER'S 

ADVICE .66 

J 857. —TRUANTS AND PICKLES— CANDLE STORIES— THE 

SNUFFERS 90 

1858.— TABLEAUX AND CHARADES— SPlklTUAL SAAJfCS I07 
1^59.— E. M. MORSE— LETTER < FROM THE NORTH POLE II7 
l86a—GYMNASTICSr— TROUBLESOME COMFORTS .128 

x86l.— PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION — CIVIL 

WAR— SCHOOL ENTHUSIASM 139 

1862.— GOUGH LECTURES — PRESIDENT'S CALL FOR 

THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN — MISSION 

ZEAL 147 

t863.>-A SOLDIER'S DEATH — GENERAL M^CLELLAN's 

LEITER— PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ADDRESS AT < 
ETTYSBURG 1 57 

7 



< CONTENTS 

S8j^4.— GRAflDPATMER BSALS' PBATR— ANNA GRADUATES I fO 
l865.->PRXSn>BNT LINCOLl^S SBCOND INAUGURAL 

ADDRESS^PALL OF RICHMONX>— MURDER OF 

UNCOLN 1*84 

1866.— FREEDMAN'S fair — GENERAL GRANT AND 

ADMIRAL FARRAGUT VISIT CANANDAIGUA . I94 

l867.^BROTHER JOHN AND WIFE GO TO LONDON— 

LECTUR]^ BY CHARLES DICKENS . . . 20I 

1872.— GRANDMOTHER BEALS' DEATH-r-BIOGRAPHY . 203 

1 88a— anna's marriage .207 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



OlltoUNB OOWLBS RICHARDS (MRS s. c. cxarkb) FrimHsfiiece 

REALS' HOMESTEAD, CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK Foch^poge 7 

BIRDSEYE VIEW OF CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK „ 1 1 

NAPLES VILLAGE AND VALLEY, NEW YORK ,, II 

MAIN STREET, PENN YANN, NEW YORK „ 29 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CANANDAIGUA, 

NEW YORK „ 29 

OltANDFATHER BEALS „ 41 

GRANDMOTHER BEALS „ 41 

grandmother's ROCKING CHAIR ... „ 99 

THE' GRANDFATHER CLOCK . . » 99 

REV. OLIVER B. DAGGETT, l>.l>, „ III 

CYRUS W. FIELD „ III 

ONTARIO FEMALE SEMINARY, CANANDAIGUA 

NEW YORK ,,141 

CANANDAIGUA ACADEMY .... „ 160 



AULD LANG SYNE 

''Should auld acquaintance be foigot 
And never brought to mind? 
Should auld acquaintance be forgot 
And days o' auld lang syne? 

''We twa hae run about the braes 
And pu'd the gowans fine. 
But we've wandered mony a weary bit 
Sin auld lang syne. 

"We twa hae paddled in the bum 
Frae morning sun till dine 
But seas between us twa hae roared 
Sin auld lang syne. 

"For auld lang syne, my dear, 
For auld lang syne. 
Well take a cup o' kindness yet 
For auld lang S3me." 

— Burns. 



mTRQDUCTION 

The Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards fell 
' into, my hands, so to speak, out of space. I 
had no previous acquaintance with the author, 
and I sat down to read the book one evening in 
no especial mood of anticipation. From the first 
page to the last my attention was riveted. To 
call it fascinating barely expresses the quality 
of the charm. Caroline Richards and her sister 
Anna, having early lost their mother, were 
sent to the home of her parents in Canandaigua, 
New York, where they were brought up in 
the simplicity and sweetness of a refined house- 
hold, amid Puritan traditions. The children 
were allowed to grow as plants do, absorbing 
vitality from the atmospliere around them. 
Whatever there was of gracious formality in the 
manners of aristocratic people of the period, 
came to them as their birthright, while the 
spirit of the truest democracy pervaded their 
home. Of this Diary it is not too much to 
say that it is a revelation of childhood in ideal 
conditions. 

The Diary begins in 1852, and is continued 

IS 



14 INTRODUCTION 

until 1872. Those of us who live<) in the 
latter half of the nineteenth century recalt the 
swift transitions, the rapid march of science 
and various changes in social customs, and 
as we meet allusions to these in the leaves 
of the girl's Diary we live our past over again 
with peculiar pleasure. 

Far more has been told us concerning the 
South during the Civil War than concerning 
the North. Fiction has found the North a 
less romantic field, and the South has been 
chosen as the background of many a stirring 
novel, while only here and there has an author 
been found who has known the deep-hearted 
loyalty of the Northern States and woven the 
story into narrative form. The girl who grew 
up in Canandaigua was intensely patriotic, and 
from day to day vividly chronicled what she 
saw, felt, and heard. Her Diary is a faithful 
record of impressions of that stormy time in 
which the nation underwent a baptism of fire. 
The realism of her paragraphs is unsurpassed. 

Beyond the personal claim of the . Diary 
and the certainty to give pleasure to a host 
of re^aders, the author appeals to Americans in 
general because of her family and her friends. 
Her father and grandfather were Presbyterian 
ministers. Her Grandfather Richards was 
for twenty years President of Auburn Theo- 
logical Seminary. Her brother, John Morgan 



INTRODUCTION 16 

Richards of L'Ondon has recently given to 
the world the Life and Letters of his gifted 
and lamented daughter, Pearl Mary-Tertse 
Craigie, known best a$ John Oliver Hobbes. 
The famous Field brothers and their father, 
Rev. David Dudley Field, and thifeir nephew, 
Justice David J. Brewer, of the United States 
Supreme Court, were her kinsmen. Miss 
Hannah Upham, a distinguished teacher 
mentioned in the Diary, belongs to the group 
of American women to whom we owe the 
initiative of what we now choose to call the 
higher education of the sex. She, in common 
with Mary Lyon, Emma Willard, and Eliza 
Bayliss Wheaton, gave a forward impulse 
to the liberal education of women, and our 
privilege is to keep their memory green. 
They are to be remembered by what they 
have done and by the tender reminiscences 
found here and there like pressed flowers in 
a herbarium, in such pages as these. 

Miss Richards' marriage to Mr Edmund 
C. Clarke occurred in 1866. Mr Clarke is 
a veteran of the Civil War and a Commander 
in the Grand Army of the Republic. His 
brother, Noah T. Clark<&, was the Principal 
of Canandaigua Academy for the long term 
of forty years. The dignified, amusing and 
remarkable personages who were Mrs Clarke's 
contemporaries, teachers, or friends are pictured 



16 INTRODUCTION 

in her Diary just as they were, so that we 
meet them on the street, in the drawing-room, 
in church, at prayer -meeting, anywhere and 
everywhere, and grasp their hands as if we, 
too, were in their presence. 

Wherever this little book shall go it will 
carry good cheer. Fun and humour sparkle 
through the story of this childhood and girl- 
hood so that the reader will be cheated of 
ennui, and the sallies of the little lister will 
provoke mirth and laughter to brighten dull 
days. I have read thousands of books. I 
have never read one which has given me more 
delight than this. 

Margaret E. Sangster. 

Glen Ridge, New Jersey, U.S., 
June 191 1. 



THE VILLAGBS IT 



THE VILLAGES 

> 

CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.— A beantiinl village, the coon^ 
scat of Ontario Count/, aitnated at the foot of Canandaigna Lake, 
wliich is called *'Xht gem of the inland lakes" of Western New 
York, aboat 325 miles from New York city. 

NAPLES, NEW YORK.— A small village at the head of Canandaigna 
Lake, fiunoQs for its vine-clad hills and onrivalled scenery. 

GENEVA, NEW YORK.—A beantifnl, town abont 16 miles from 
Canandaigna. 

EAST BLOOMFIELD, NEW YORK.'— An ideal Arming region 
and snborban village about 8 miles from Canandaigna. 

PENN YAN, NEW YORK.— The county seat ot Yates County, 
a grape centre upon beautiful Lake Kenka. 

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.— A flourishing manufiurturing dty, 
growing rapidly, less than 30 miles from Canandaigna, and 120 
mOes from Niagara Falls. 

AUBURN, NEW YORK.— Noted for its Theological Seminary, 
nearly one hundred years old, and for being the home of William 
H. Seward and other American Statesmen. 



18 



VILLAOE UFB IN AMERICA 



THE VILLAGERS 



Mr and Mrs THOMAS BEALS 
CAROLINE AND ANNA 
JAMES AND JOHN RICHARDS 
" AUNT ANN " 
" AUNT MARY r CARR 
• • AUNT GLORIANNA " 
" UNCLE HENRY " 
"UNCLE THOMAS" . 
Rbv. O. E. DAGGETT, D.D. 

NOAH T. CLARKE 

Hon. FRANCIS GRANGER . 
General JOHN A. GRANGER 
GIDEON GRANGER 
ALBERT GRANGER 
JOHN GREIG .... 



. Grandfmther and Gnndmother 



} 



GrandchildreD of Mr and Mrs 
Beals 



MYRON H. CLARK 
JUDGE H. W. TAYLOR 
E. M. MORSE . . ^ . 



Miss ZILPHA CLARKE . 
Miss CAROLINE CHESEBRO 
Mrs GEORGE WILLSON 
Miss HANNAH UPHAM 

Mr FRED THOMPSON . 



} 



Sons and daughters of Mr and 
Mrs Beals 



Pastor of Canandaigna Con- 
gregational Chnrcb 

Principal Canandaigna 
Academy for Boys 

Postmaster-General, U.S. A. 

Of New York Sute Militia 

Son of Hon. Francis 

Son of General Grainger 

Wealthy Scotsman long, time 
resident of Canandaigna 

Governor, State of New York 

Prominent lawyer and jurist 

A leading lawyer in Canan- 
daigua 

School teacher; of note 

Well-known writers 

Eminent instructress and lady 
principal of Ontario Female 
Seminary 

Prominent resident, married 
Miss ]^ary Clark, daughter 
of Governor Myron H. 
Oark. 



THE VILLAGERS 



19 



School Boys 

WILLIAM T. SCHLEY . 
HORACE M. FINLEY . 
ALBERT MURRAY 
S. GURNEY LAPHAM . 
CHARLES COY 
ELLSWORTH DAGGETT 
CHARLIE PADDOCK . 
MERRITT C. WILLCOX 
WILLIAM H. ADAMS . 
GEORGE N. WILLIAMS 
WILLIS P. FISK . 



Residing with parents in Csn< 
andaigaa 



LOUISA FIELD 
MARY WHEELER . 
EMMA WHEELER . 
LAURA CHAPIN : 
JULIA PHELPS 
MARY PAUL . 
BESSIE SEYMOUR . 
LUCILLA FIELD . 
MARY FIELD . 
ABBIE CLARK 
SUSIE DAGGETT . 
FRANKIE RICHARDSON 
FANNY GAYLORD . 
MARY COY . 
HELEN COY . 
HATTIE PADDOCK 
SARAH ANtES 
LOTTIE i;.AFHAM . 
CLARA WILSON . 
FANNIE PALMER . 
RITIE TYLER . 



I Law Students. 

. Teacher in Academy. 

School Girls 

\ 



t 



Residing with parents in Can< 
andaigua 



/ 



TO BRITISH READERS 

This "Diary of a Schcx)l-Girr' summarises un- 
consciously in an artless and attractive manner 
the finest and noblest attributes of the American 
character. Considerations of a political character 
sink into insignificance with the observations of a 
quick-witted school-girl who, with innocent eyes^ 
presents the series of observations contained in this 
remarkable diary. Inheriting the sacred traditions 
of a Puritan ancestry, she sets up that standard of 
morality which makes for the foundation of a^ 
kingdom, whose author and builder is not of this 
world. Grandfather and Grandmother Beals are 
typical of an age existing before the birth of " The 
Almighty Dollar." The Grandfather in straight- 
forward dealing is unsurpassed by any creation of 
fiction ; and Grandmother Beals, by her sweetness 
of life, actuated by her knowledge of Bible truths is 
worthy of a place amongst the noblest of unselfish 
women. To them this girl-diarist pays, all-unknow- 
ing, a beautiful tribute ; while at the same time the 
spirit of the age is photographed in the social records 
of everyday life. From their beginning the United 
States were in advance of other nations in their 
methods of education — the development of the 
natural powers of her children, rather than in the 
imposition of a dead learning. These simple annals 
of a girl's early years are of the highest historical 
and literary value. 

John B. Marsh. 

WiMBART ROADy TULSK HlLL> 

London, S.W.^ Seputnber 1911. 

20 



VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

1852 

Canandaigua, N.Y, 

November 21 y 1852. — I am ten years old 
to-day, and I think I will write a journal and 
tell who I am and what I am doing. I have 
lived with my Grandfather and Grandmother 
Beals ever since I was seven years old, and 
Anna, too, since she was four. Our brothers, 
James and Johri, came too, but they are at 
East Bloomfield at Mr Stephen Clark's 
Academy. Miss Laura Cl^rk of Naples is 
their teacher. 

Anna and I go to school at District No. 11. 
Mr James C. Cross is our teacher, and some 
of the scholars say he is cross by name and 
cross by nature, but I like him. He gave me 
a book by the name of "Noble Deeds of 
American Women," for reward of merit, in 
my reading class. To-day, a nice old gentle- 
man, by the name of Mr William Wood, 
visited our school. He is Mrs Nat Gdrham'^ 
uncle, and Wood Street is named for him. He 
had a beautiful pear in his hand and said he 



Sf VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

would give it to the boy or girl who could 
spell "virgaloo/' for that was the name of 
tne pear. I spelt it that way, but it was not 
right. A little boy, named William Schley, 
spelt it right and he got t^e pear. I wish I 
had, but I can't even remember now how he 
spelt it. If the pear was as hard as the name, 
I don't believe any one would want it, but I 
don't see how they happened to give such a 
hard name to such §l nice pear. Grandfather 
says perhaps Mr Wood will bring in a Seckle 
pear some day, so I had better be ready for 
him. 

Grandmother told us such a nice story 
to-day f am going to write it down in my 
journal. I think I shall write a book some 
day. Miss Caroline Chesebro did, and I don't 
see why I can't. If I do, I shall put this story 
in it. It is a true story and better than any 
I foui>d in three story books Grandmother 
gave us to read this week, "Peep of Day," 
"Line Upon Line," and "Precept Upon 
Precept," but this story was better tnan tnem 
all. One night Grandfather was locking the 
front door at nine o'clock, and he heard a queer 
sound, like a baby crying. So he unlocked 
the door and found a bandbpx on the stoop, 
and the cry seemed to come from inside of it. 
So he took it up and brought it into the 
dining - room and called the two girls, who 
had just gone upstairs to bed. They came 
right down and opened the box, and there was 
a poor little girl baby, crying as hard as could 
be. They took it out and rocked it and sung 



1862 28 

to it and got some milk and fed it and then 
sat up all night with it, by the fire. There 
was a paper pinned on the baby's dress with 
her name oh it, "Lily T. LaMott," and a 
piece of poetry cs^lled " pity the Poor Orphan/- 
The next morning, Grandfather went to the 
overseer of the poor and he said it should be 
taken to the. county house, so our. hired man 
got the horse and buggy, and one of the girls 
carried the baby and they took it away. There 
was a piece in the paper about it and Grand- 
mother pasted it into her *• Jay's Morning and 
Evening Exercises," and showed it to us. Ijt 
said, ''A Deposit After Banking Hours." 
"Two suspicious looking females were seen 
about town in the afternoon, one of them 
carrying an infant. They took a train early 
in the morning without the child. They 
probably secreted themselves in Mr Beals' 
yard and if he had not taken the box in 
they would have carried it somewhere else." 
When Grandfather told the clerks in the 
bank about it next morning, Mr Bunnell, 
who lives over by Mr Daggett's, on the park, 
said, if it had been left at some people's houses 
it would not have been sent away. Grand- 
mother says they heard that the baby was 
adopted afterwards by some nice people in 
Geneva. People must think this is a nice 
place for children, for they had eleven of 
their own before we came. Mrs McCoe was 
here to call this afternoon and s|ie looked at 
us and said : " It must be a great responsibility, 
Mrs Beals." Grandmother said she thougnt 



S4 YILLAOE LIFE IN AMERICA 

"her strength would be equal to her day." 
That is one of her favourite verses. She said 
Mrs McCoe never had any children ot her 
own and perhaps that is the reason she looks 
so sad at us. Perhaps some one will leave 
a bandbox and a baby at her door some 
dark night. 

Saturday, — Our brother John drove over 
from East Bloomfield to-day to see us and 
brought Julia Smedley with him, who is just 
my age. John lives at Mr F.erdinand Beebe's 
and goes to school and Julia is Mr Beebe's 
niece. They make quantities of maple sugar 
out there and they brought us a dozen little 
cakes. They were splendid. I offered John 
one and he said he would rather throw it over 
the fence than to eat it. I can't understand 
that. Anna had the faceache to-day and I 
told her that I would be the doctor and make 
her a ginger poultice. I thought I did it 
exactly right but when I put it on her face 
she shivered and said: "Carrie, you make 
lovely poultices only they are so cold." I 
suppose I ought to have warmed it. 

7W5^^^.— Grandfather took us to rid? this 
afternoon and let us ask Bessie Seymour to 
go with us. We rode on the plank road to 
Chapinville and had to pay 2 cents at the 
toll gate, both way?. We met a good many 
people and Grandfather bowed to them ^d 
said, ''How do you do, neighbour?" 

We asked him whaf their names were and 



185t » 

he said he did not know. We went to see 
Mr Munson, who runs the miU at Chapinville. 
He took us through the mill and let us get 
weighed and took. us over to his house and 
out into the barn -yard to see the pigs and 
chickens and we also saw a colt which was 
one day old. Anna just wrote in her journal 
that "it was a very amusing site." 

Sunday. — Rev. Mr Kendall, of East Bloom- 
field, preached to-day. His text was from 
Job 26, 14 : " Lo these are parts of his ways^ 
but how little a portion is heard of him." I 
could not make out what he meant. He is 
James' and John's minister. 

Wednesday. — Captain Menteith was at our 
house to dinner to-day and he tried to make 
Anna and me laugh by snapping his snuff- 
box under the table. He is a very jolly 
man, I think. 

Thursday. — Father and Uncle Edward 
Richards came to see us yesterday and took 
us down to Mr Corson's store and told us we 
could have anything we wanted. So we asked 
for several kinds of candy, stick candy and 
lemon drops and bulls' eyes, and then they got 
us two rubber balls and two jumping ropes 
with handles and two hoops and sticks to roll 
them with and two red carnelian rings and two 
bracelets. We enjoyed getting them very much, 
and expect to have lots of fun. They went 
out to East Bloomfield to see James and John, 



26 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

and father is going to tak^ them' to New 
Orleans, We hate to have them go. 

Friday. — We asked Grandmother if we could 
have some hoop skirts like the seminary girls 
and she said no, we were not old enough. 
When we were downtown Anna bought a reed 
for ro cents and ran it into the hem of her 
underskirt and says she is going to wear it to 
school to-morrow, I think Grandmother will 
laugh out loud for once, when she sees it, but 
I don't think Anna will wear it to school or 
anywhere else. She wouldn't want to if she 
knew how terrible it looked. 

I threaded a dozen needles on a spool of 
thread for Grandmother, before I went to 
school, so that she could slip them along and 
use them as she needed them. She says it is 
a great help. 

Grandmother says I will have a great deal to 
answer for, because Anna looks up to me so 
and tries to do everything that I do and thinks 
whatever I say is "gospel truth." The other 
day the girls at school were disputing with her 
about something and she said, "It is so, if it 
ain't so, for Calline said so." I shall have to 
**toe the mark," as Grandfather says, if she 
keeps watch of me all the time and walks in 
my footsteps. 

We asked Grandmother this evening if we 
could sit out in the kitchen with Bridget and 
Hannah and the hired man, Thomas HpUeran. 
She said we could take turns and each stay ten 
minutes by the clock. It gave us a little 



i«52 n 

change. I read once ^at ''variety is the spice 
of life/' They sit around the table and each 
one has a candle, and Thomas reads aloud to 
the girls while they sew. He and Bridget are 
Catholics, but Hannah is a member of our 
Church. The girls have lived here always, I 
think, but I don't know for sure, as I have not 
lived here always myself, but we have to get 
a new hired man sometimes. Grandmother 
says if you are as good to your gfirls as you are 
to yourself they will stay a long time. I am 
sure that is Grandmother's rule. Mrs McCarty, 
who lives on Brook Street (some people call it 
Cat Alley but Grandmother says that is not 
proper), washe3 for us Mondays, and Grand- 
mother always has a lunch for her at eleven 
o'clock and goes out herself to see that she sits 
down and eats it. Mrs McCarty told us Monday 
that Mrs Brockle's niece was dead, who lives 
next door to her. Grandmother sent us over 
with some things for their comfort and told 
us to say that we were sorry they were in 
trouble. We went and when we came back 
Anna told Grandmother that I said, *' Never 
mind, Mrs Brockle, some day we will all be 
dead." I am sure that I said something better 
than that. 

Wednesday, — Mr Cross had us speak pieces 
to-day. He calls our names, and we walk oh 
to the platform and toe the mark and make a 
bow and say what we have got; to say. He did 
not know what our pieces were going to be 
and some of them said the same ones. Two. 



« VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

boys spoke: "The boy stood on the burning 
deck» whence all but him had fled.'* William 
Sly was one, and he spoke his the best. When 
he said, '' The flames that lit the battle wreck 
shone round him o'er the dead/' we could almost 
see the j5re, and when he said, " My father, 
must I stay ? " we felt like telling him, no, he 
needn't He is going to make a good speaker. 
Mr Cross said so. Albert Murray spoke 
"Excelsior," and Horace Finley spoke nice, 
too. My piece was, " Why, Phoebe, are 
you come so soon ? Where are your berries, 
child .^" Emma Van Arsdale spoke the same 
one. We find them all in our reader. Some- 
time I am going to speak, "How does the 
water come down at Ladore ? " Splashing and 
flashing and dashing and clashing and all 
that — it rhymes, so it is easy to remember. 

We played snap the whip at recess to-day 
and I was on the end and was snapped off 
against the fence. . It hurt me so, that Anna 
cried. It is not a very good game for girls, 
especially for the one on the end. 

Tuesday. — I could not keep a journal for 
two weeks, because Grandfather and Grand- 
mother have been very sick and we were afraid 
something dreadful was going to happen. We 
are so glad that they are well again. Grand- 
mother was sick upstairs and Grandfather in 
the bedroom downstairs, and we carried 
messages back and forth for them. Dr Carr 
and Aunt Mary came over twice every day and 
said they had the influenza and the inflamma- 



1868 99 

tidn of the lungs. 1 1 was lonesome for us to sit 
down to the table and just have Hannah wait 
on us. We had such lumps in our throats we 
dould not eat much and we cried ourselves to 
sleep two or three nights. Aunt Ann Field 
took us home with her one afternoon to stay 
all night We liked the idea and Mary and 
Louisa and Anna and I planned what we would 
play in the evening, but just as it was dark our 
hired man, Patrick McCarty, drove over after us. 
He said Grandfather and Grandmother could 
not get to sleep till they saw the children and 
bid them good-night. So we rode home with 
him. We never stayed anywhere away from 
home all night that we can remember. When 
Grandmother came downstairs the first time 
she was too weak to walk, so she sat on each 
step till she got down. When Grandfather saw 
her, he smiled and said to us : *' When she will, 
she will, you may depend on't ; and when she 
won't she won't, and that's the end on't." But 
we knew all the time that he was very glad to 
see her. 

Sunday, March 20, 1853. — It snowed so, that 
we could not go to church to-day and it was the 
longest day I ever spent. The only excite- 
ment was seeing the snowplough, drawn by two 
horses, go up on this side of the street and 
down on the other. Grandfather put on his 
long cloak with a cape, whidh he wears in real 
cold weather, and went. We wanted to pull 
some long stockings over our shoes .and go too 
but Grandmother did not think it was. best. 



90 VILLAGE UPE IN AMERICA 

She gave us the '' Dairyman's Daughter*' and 
•'Jane the Young Cottager," by Leigh Rich- 
mond, to read. I don't see how they happened 
to be so awfully good. Anna says they died 
of "early piety," but she did not say it very 
loud. Grandmother said she would give me 
lo cents if I would learn the verses in the 
New England Primer that John Rogers left 
for his wife and nine small children and one at 
the breast, when he was burned at the stake, 
at Smithfield, England, in 1555. One verse is, 
"J leave you here a little book for you to look 
upon that you may see your father's face when 
he is dead and gone." It is a very long piece 
but I got it. Grandmother says **the blood 
of the martyrs is the seed of the church^" 
Anna learned 

'' In Adam's fall we sinned all. 
My Book and heart shall never part. 
The Cat doth slay and after play. 
The Dog doth bite a thief at night> 

When she came to the end of it and said, 

" Zaccheus he, did climb a tree, his Lord to see." 

she $aid she heard some one say, " The tree 
broke down and let him fall and he did not see 
his Lord at all.'' Grandmother said it was 
very wicked indeed and she hoped Anna would 
try and forget it. 

April I. — Grandmother sent me up into 
the little chamber to-day to straighten things 
and get the room ready to be cleaned. I 



1869 81 

found a little book called ''Child's Pilgrim 
Progress, Illustrated/' that I had never seen 
before. I got as far as Giant Despair when 
Anna came up and said Grandmother sent 
her to see what I was doing, and she went 
back and told her that I was sitting on the 
floor in the midst of books and papers and 
was so absorbed in *• Pilgrim's Progress" that 
-I had made lione myself. It must be a good' 
book for Grandmother did not say a word. 
Father sent us "Gulliver's Travels" and 
there is a gilt picture on the green cover, of 
a giant witn legs astride and little Lilliputians 
standing underneath, who do not come up to 
his knees. Grandmother did not like the 
picture, so she pasted a piece of pink calico 
over it, so we could pnly see the giant from 
his waist up. I love the story of Cinderella 
and the poem^. **'Twas the night before 
Christmas," and I am sorry that there are 
no fairies and no Santa Claus. 

We go to school to Miss Zilpha Clark in 
her own house on Gibson Street. Other girls 
who go are Laura Chapin, Julia. Phelps, Mary 
Paul, Bessie Seymour, Lucilla and Mary Field, 
Louisa Benjamin, Nannie Corson, Kittie 
Marshall, Abbie Clark and several other 
girls. I like ,Abbie Clark the best of all the 
girls in school excepting of course my sister 
Anna. 

Before I go to school every morning I read 
three chaptiers in the Bible. I read three 
every day and five on Sunday and that takes 
me through the Bible in a year. Those I 



St VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

read this morning were the first, second mnd 
third chapters of Job* The first was about 
Eliphaz reproveth Job; second, Benefit of 
God's correction; diird, Job justifieth his 
complaint. I then learned a text to say at 
school. I went to school at quarter to nine 
and recited my text and we had prayers 
and then proceeded with the business of the 
day. Just before school was out, we recited 
in "Science of Things Familiar," and in 
Dictionary, and then we had calisthenics. 

We go through a great many figures and 
sing "A Life on the Ocean Wave," "What 
Fairy Like Music Steals Over the Sea," 
" Lightly Row, Lightly Row, O'er the Glassy 
Waves We Go," and "O Come, Come Away," 
and other songs. Mrs Judge Taylor wrote 
one song on purpose for us. 

May I. — I arose tnis morning about the 
usual time and read my three chapters in the 
Bible and had time for a walk in the garden 
before breakfast. The polyanthuses are just 
beginning to blossom and they border all the 
walk up and down the garden. I went to 
school at . quarter of nine, but did not get 
along very well because we played too much. 
We had two new scholars to-day. Miss 
Archibald and Miss Andrewis, the former 
about seventeen and the latter about fifteen. 
In the afternoon old Mrs Kinney made us a 
visit, but she did not stay very long. In 
dictionary class I got up sixth, although I had 
not studied my lesson very much. 



1868 88 

yufy.—Hiraxn Goodrich, who lives at Mr 
Myron H. Clark's, and George and Wirt 
Wheeler ran away on Sunday to seek their 
fortunes. When they did not come back 
every one was frightened and started out to 
find them. They set out right after Sunday 
School, taking their pennies which had been 
given them for the contribution, and were 
gone several days. They were finally found 
at Palmyra. When asked why they had run 
away, one replied that he thought it was 
about time they saw something of the world. 
We heard that Mr Clark had a few moments 
private conversation with Hiram in the barn 
and Mr Wheeler the same with his boys and 
we do not think they will go traveling on 
their own hook again right off. Miss Upham 
lives right across the street from them and 
she was telling little Morris Bates that he 
must fight the good fight of faith and he 
asked her if that was the fight that Wirt 
Wheeler fit. She probably had to make her 
instructions plainer after that. 

yufy. — Every Saturday our cousins, Lucilla 
and Mary and Louisa Field, take turns coming 
to Grandmother's to dinner. It was Mary's 
turn to-day, but she was sick and couldn't 
come, so Grandmother told us that we could 
dress up and make some calls for her. We 
were very glad. She told us to go to Mrs 
Gooding's first, so we did and she was glad 
to see us and gaye us some cake she had 
just made. Then we went on to Mr Greig's. 

c 



84 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

We walked up the high steps to the front 
door and rang the bell and Mr Alexander 
came. We asked if Mrs Greig and Miss 
Chapin were at home and he said ye^, and 
asked us into the parlour. We looked at the 
paintings on the wall and looked at ourselves 
in the long looking-glass, while we were 
waiting. Mrs Irving came in first. She was 
very nice and said I looked like her niece, 
Julie Jeffrey. I hope I do, for I would like 
to look like her. Mrs Greig and Miss Chapin 
came in and were very glad to see us, and 
took us out into the greenhouse and showed 
us all the beautiful plants. When we said 
we would have to go they said good-bye and 
sent love to Grandmother and told us to call 
again. I never knew Anna to act as polite 
as she did to-day. Then we went to see 
Mrs Judge Phelps and Miss Eliza Chapin, 
and they were very nice and gave us sopie 
flowers from their garden. Then we went 
on to Miss Caroline Jackson's, to see Mrs 
Holmes. Sometimes she is my Sunday School 
teacher, and she says she and our mother 
used to be great friends at the seminary. 
She said she was glad we came up and she 
hoped we would be as good as our mother 
was. That is what nearly every one says. 
On our way back, we called on Mrs Dana 
at the Academy, as she is a friend of Grand- 
mother. She is Mrs Noah T. Clarke's mother. 
After that, we went home and told Grand- 
mother we had a very pleasant tfme calling on 
our friends and they all asked us to come again. 



1868 So 

Sunday, August 15. — To-day the Sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper was held in our church, 
and Mr Daggett baptized several little babies. 
They looked so cunning when he took them 
in his arn>s and not one of them cried. I 
told Grandmother when we got home that 
I remembered when Grandfather Richards 
baptized me in Auburn, and when he gave 
me back to mother he said, '' Blessed little 
lambkin, you'll never know your grandpa." 
She said I was mistaken about remembering 
it, for he died before I was a year old, but 
I had heard it told so many times I thought 
I remembered it. Projbably that is the way 
it was but I know it happened. 

November 22. — I wrote a composition to-day, 
and the subject was, " Which of the Seasons 
Is the Pleasantest ? " Anna asked Grand- 
mother what she should write about, and 
Grandmother said she thought ** A Contented 
Mind " would be a very good subject, but 
Anna said she never had one and didn't know 
what it meant, so she didn't try to write any 
at all. 

A squaw walked right into our kitchen to-day 
with a blanket over her head and had beaded 
purses to sell. 

This is my composition which I wrote : 
"Which of the seasons is the pleasantest? 
Grim winter with its cold snows and whistling 
winds, or pleasant spring with its green grass 
and budding trees, or warm summer with its 
ripening fruit and beautiful flowers, or delightful 



36 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

autumn with its golden fruit and splendid sun- 
sets ? I think that I like all the seasons very 
well. In winter comes the blazing fire and 
Christmas treat. Then we can have sleigh- 
rides and play in the snow and generally get 
pretty cold noses and toses. In spring we 
have a great deal of rain and very often snow 
and therefore we do not enjoy that season 
as much as we would if it was dry weather, 
but we should remember that April showers 
bring May flowers. In summer we can hear 
the birds warbling their sweet notes in the 
trees and we have a great many strawberries, 
currants, gooseberries and cherries, which I 
like very much, indeed, and I think summer 
is a very pleasant season. In autumn we 
have some of our choicest fruits, such as 
peaches, pears, apples, grapes and plums and 
plenty of flowers in the former part, but in 
the latter, abqut in November, the wind begins 
to blow and the leaves to fall and the flowers 
to wither and die. Then cold winter with 
its sleigh-rides comes round again." After I 
had written this I went to bed. Anna tied 
her shoe strings in hard knots so she could 
sit up later. 

November 23. — We read our compositions 
to-day and Miss Clark said mine was very 
good. One of the girls had a Prophecy for a 
composition and told what we were all going 
to be when we grew up. She said Anna 
Richards was going to be a missionary and 
Anna cried right out loud. I tried to comfort 



■■ "^ ^^ 



1858 87 

her and told her it might never happen, so 
she stopped crying. 

November 24. — Three ladies visited our 
school to-day, Miss Phelps, Miss Daniels and 
Mrs Clark. We had calisthenics and they 
liked them. 

Sunday. — Mr Tousley preached to - day. 
Mr Lamb is Superintendent of the Sunday 
School. Mr Chipman used to be. Miss 
Mollie Bull played the melodeon. Mr Fair- 
child is my teacher when he is there. He 
was not there to-day and Miss Mary Howell 
taught our class. I wish I could be as good 
and pretty as she is. We go to church 
morning and afternoon and to Sunday School, 
and learn seven verses every week and recite 
catechism and hymns to Grandmother in the 
evening. Grandmother knows all the questions 
by heart, so she lets the book lie in her lap 
and she asks them with her eyes shut. She 
likes to h^ar us sing: 

" 'Tis religion that can give 
Sweetest pleasure while we live, 
'Tis religion can supply 
Solid comfort when we die." 

December i . — Grandfather asked me to read 
President Pierce's message aloud to him this 
evening. I thought it was very long and dry, 
but he said it was interesting and that I read 
it very well. I am glad he liked it. Part of 



«8 VILLAGE LEFB IN AMERICA 

it was about the Missouri Compromise and I 
didn't even know what it meant. 

December 8. — We are taking dictation 
lessons at school now. Miss Clark reads to 
us from the "Life of Queen Elizabeth" and 
we write it down in a book and keep it. She 
x:orrects it for us, I always spell ** until " with 
two i's and she has to mark it every time. I 
hope I will learn how to spell it after a while. 

Saturday, December 9. — We took our music 
lessons to-day. Miss Hattie Heard is our 
teacher and she says we are getting along 
well. Anna practiced her lesson over sixty- 
five times this morning before breakfast and 
can play **Mary to the Saviour's Tomb" as 
fast as a waltz. 

We chose sides and spelled dqwn at school 
to-day. Julia Phelps and I stood up the last 
and both went down on the same word — 
eulogism. I don't see the use of that **e.*' 
Miss Clark gave us twenty words which we 
had to bring into some stories which we wrote. 
It was real fun to hear them. Every one was 
different. 



1854 

January i, 1854. — About fifty little boys 
and girls at intervals knocked at the front 
dooT to-day, to wish us Happy New Year. 
We had pennies and cakes and apples ready 
for them. The pennies, especially, seemed 
to attract them and we noticed the same ones 
several times. Aunt Mary Carr made lovely 
New Year cakes with a pretty flower stamped 
on before they were baked. 

February 4, 1854. — We heard to-day of 
the death of our little half-sister, Julia Dey 
Richards, in Penn Yan, yesterday, and I felt 
so sorry I couldn't sleep last night so I made 
up some verses about her and this morning 
wrote them down and gave them to Grand- 
father. He liked them so well he wanted 
me to show them to Miss Clark and ask her 
to revise them. I did and she said she would 
hand them to her sister Mary to correct. 
When she handed them back they were very 
much nicer than they were at first and Grand- 
father had me copy them and he pasted them 
into one of his Bibles to keep. 

Saturday. — Anna and I went to call on 

89 



40 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Miss Upham to-day. She is a real old lady 
and lives with her niece, Mrs John Biaites, on 
Gibson Street. Our mother used to go to 
school to her at the Seminary. Miss Upham 
said to Anna, **Your mother was a lovely 
woman. You are not at all like her, dear." 
I told Anna she meant in looks I was sure, 
but Anna was afraid she didn't. 

Sunday, — Mr Daggett's text this morning 
was the 22 nd chapter of Revelation, i^th verse, 
" I am the root and offspring of David and the 
bright and morning star." ' Mrs Judge Taylor 
taught our Sunday School class to-day and 
she said we ought not to read our S. S. books 
on Sunday. I always do. Mine to-day was 
entitled, " Cheap Repository Tracts by Hannah 
More," and it did not seem unreligious at all. 

Tuesday. — A gentleman visited our school 
to-day whom we had never seen. Miss Clark 
introduced him to us. When he came in, 
Miss Clark said, "Young ladies," and we all 
stood up and bowed and said his name in 
concert. Grandfather says he would rather 
have us go to school to Miss Clark than any- 
one else because she teaches us manners as 
well as books. We girls think that he is a 
very particular friend of Miss Clark. He is 
very nice looking, but we don't know where he 
lives. Laura Chapin says he is an architect. 
I looked it up in the dictionary and it says one 
who plans or designs. I hope he does not 
plan to get married to Miss Clark and take her 



1854 41 

away and break up the school, but I presume 
he does, for that is usually the way. 

Monday. — There was a minister preached 
in our church last night and some people say 
he is the greatest minister in the world. I 
think his name was Mr Finney. Grandmother 
said I could go with our girl, Hannah White. 
We sat under the gallery, in Miss Antoinette 
Pierson s pew. There was a great crowd and 
he preached g^od. Grandmother says that 
pur mother was a Christian when she was 
ten years old and joined the church and she 
showed us some sermons that mother used to 
write down when she was seventeen years old, 
after she came home from church, and she has 
kept them all these years. I think children 
in old times were not as bad as they are 
now. 

Tuesday. — Mrs Judge Taylor sent for me 
to come over to see her to-day. I didn't 
know what she wanted, but when I got there 
she said she wanted to talk and pray with me 
on the subject of religion. She took me into 
one of the wings. I never had been in there 
before and was frightened at first, but it was 
nice after I got used to it. After she prayed, 
she asked me to, but I couldn't think of any- 
thing but " Now I lay me down to sleep," and 
I was afraid she would not like that, so I 
didn't say anything. When I got home and 
told Anna, she said, "Caroline, I presume 
probably Mrs Taylor wants you to be a 



4« VILLAGE LIFE IN AMSRICA 

missionary, but I shan't let you go." I told 
her she needn't worry for I would have to 
stay at home and look after her. After school 
to-night I went out into Abbie Clark's garden 
with her and she taught me how to play 
'* mumble te peg." It is fun, but rather 
dangerous. I am afraid Grandmother won't 
;ive rtie a knife to play with. Abbie Clark 
las beautiful pansies in her garden and gave 
me some roots. 

Wednesday. — Grandmother sent Anna and 
me up to Butcher Street after school to-day 
to invite Chloe to come to dinner. I never 
saw so many black people as there are up 
there. We saw old Lloyd and black Jonathan 
and Dick Valentine and Jerusha and Chloe 
and Nackie. Nackie was pounding up stones 
into sand, to sell, to scour with. Grandmother 
often buys it of her. I think Chloe was 
surprised, but she said she would be ready, 
to-morrow, at eleven o'clock, when the carriage 
came for her. I should hate to be as f&t as 
Chloe. I think she weighs 300. She is going 
to sit' in Grandfather's big arm chair, Grand- 
mother says. 

We told her we should think she would 
rather invite white ladies, but she said Chloe 
was a poor old slave and as Grandfather had 
gone to Saratoga she thought it was a good 
time to have her. She said God made of one 
blood all the people on the face of the earth, 
so we knew she would do it and we didn't say 
any more. When we talk too much, Grand- 



1854 4f 

father always says N. C. (nu£f ced). She sent 
a carriage for Chloe and she came and had a 
nice dinner^ not in the kitchen either. Grand- 
mother asked her if there was any one else 
she would like to see before she went home 
and she said, "Yes, Miss Rebekah Gorham," 
so she told the coachman to take her down 
there and wait for her to make a call and then 
take her home and he did. Chloe said she 
had a very nice time, so probably Grand- 
mother was all right as she generally is, but 
I could not be as good as she is, if I should 
try one hundred years. 

June. — Our cousin, George Bates, of Hono- 
lulu, came to see us to-day. He has one 
brother, Dudley, but he didn't come. George 
has just graduated from college and is going 
to Japan to be a doctor. He wrote such a 
nice piece in my album I must copy it, " If I 
were a poet I would celebrate your virtues in 
rhyme, if I were forty years old, I would write 
a homily on good behaviour ; being neither, I 
will quote two familiar lines which if taken as 
a rule of action will make you a good and 
happy woman : 

" Honour and shame from no condition rise. 
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.'' 

I think he is a very smart young man and 
will make a good doctor to the heathen. 

Saturday. — Grandfather took us down street 
to be measured for some new patten leather 



44 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

shoes at Mr Ambler s. They are going to be 
very nice ones for best. We got our new 
summer hats from Mrs Freshour's millinery 
and we wore them over to show to Aunt Ann 
and she said they were the very handsomest 
bonnets she had seen this year. 

Tuesday. — When we were on our way to 
school this morning we met a lot of people 
and girls and boys going to a picnic up the 
lake. They asked us to go, too, but we said 
we were afraid we could not. Mr Alex. 
Howell said, "Tell your Grandfather I will 
bring you back safe and sound unless the boat 
goes to the bottom with all of us." So we 
went home and told Grandfather and much to 
our surprise he said we could go.' We had 
never been on a boat or on the lake before. 
We went up to the head on the steamer 
''Joseph Wood'' and got off at Maxwell's Point. 
They had a picnic dinner and lots of good 
things to eat. Then we all went into the glen 
and climbed up through it. Mr Alex. Howell 
and Mrs Wheeler got to the top first and 
everybody gave three cheers. We had a 
lovely time riding back on the boat and told 
Grandmother we had the very best time we 
ever had in our whole lives. 

May 26. — There was an eclipse of the sun 
to-day and we were very much excited looking 
at it. General Granger came over and gave 
us some pieces of smoked glass. Miss Clark 
wanted us to write compositions about it so 



1854 45 

Anna wrote, ** About eleven o'clock we went 
out to see if it had come yet, but it hadn't 
come yet, so we waited awhile and then looked 
again and it had come, and there was a piece 
of it cut out of it." Miss Clark said it was a 
very good description and she knew Anna 
wrote it all herself. 

I handed in a composition, too, about 
the eclipse, but I don't think Miss Clark 
liked it as well as she did Anna's, because 
it had something in it about "the beggarly 
elements of the world." She asked me where 
I got it and I told her that it was in a nice 
story book that Grandmother gave me to 
read entitled, " Elizabeth Thornton or the 
Flower and Fruit of Female Piety, and other 
sketches," by Samuel Irenaeus Prime. This 
was one of the other sketches : It commenced by 
telling how the moon came between the sun and 
the earth, and then went on about the beggarly 
elements. Miss Clark asked me if I knew 
what they meant and I told her no, but I 
thought they sounded good. She just smiled 
iand never scolded me at all. I suppose next 
time I must make it all up myself. 

There is a Mr Packer in town, who teaches 
all the children to sing. He had a concert 
in Bemis Hall last night and he put Anna 
on the top row of the pyramid of beauty and 
about one hundred children in . rows below. 
She ought tp have worn a white dress as the 
others did but Grandmother said her new pink 
barege would do. I curled her hair all around 
in about thirty curls and she looked very nice. 



46 VnXAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

She waved the flag in the shape of the letter 
S and sang "The Star Spangled Banner," 
and all the others joined in the chorus. It 
was perfectly grand. 

Monday, — When we were on our way to 
school this morning we saw General Granger 
coming, and Anna had on such a homely sun- 
bonnet she took it off and hid it behind her 
till he had gone by. When we told Grand- 
mother she said, " Pride goeth before destruc- 
tion and a haughty spirit before a fall." I 
never heard of any one Who knew so many 
Bible verses as Grandmother. Anna thought 
she would be sorry for her and get her a new 
sunbonnet, but she didn't. 

Sunday. — We have Sunday School at nine 
o'clock in the morning now. Grandfather 
loves to watch us when we watk off together 
down the street, so he walks back and forth 
oil the front walk till we come out, and gives 
us our money for the contribution. This 
morning we had on our new white dresses 
that Miss Rosewarne made and new summer 
hats and new patten leather shoes and our 
mitts. When he had looked us all over he 
said, with a smile, ** The- Bible says, let your 
garments be always white." After we had 
gone on a little ways, Anna said : "If Grand- 
mother had thought of that verse I wouldn't 
have had to wear my pink barege dress to 
the concert." I told her she need not feel 
bad about that now, for she sang as well as 



1864 47 

any of them and looked just a3 good. She 
always believes everything I say» although 
she does not always do what I tell her to. 
Mr Noah T. Clarke told us in Sunday School 
last Sunday that if we wanted to take shares 
in the missionary ship, Morning Star, we 
could buy them at lo cents apiece, and Grand- 
mother gave us $1 to-day so we could have 
ten shares. We got the certificate with a 
picture of the ship on it, and we are going 
to keep it alwiays. Anna says if we pay the 
money, we don't have to go. 

Sunday.— I almost forgot that it was Sunday 
this morning and talked and laughed just as 
I do week days. Grandmother told me to 
write down this verse before I went to church 
so I would remember it : *' Keep thy foot 
when thou goest to the house of God, and^ 
be more ready to hear than to offer the 
sacrifice of fools." I will remember it now, 
sure. My feet are all right any way with my 
new patten leather shoes on but I shall have 
to look out for my head. Mr Thomas Howell 
read' a sermon to-day as Mr Daggett is out of 
town. Grandmother always comes upstairs to 
get the candle and (uck us in before she goes 
to bed herself, and some nights we are sound 
asleep and do not hear her, but last night 
we only pretended to be asleep. She kneeled 
down by the bed iand prayed aloud for us, 
that we might be good children and that she 
might have strength given to her from on 
high to guide us in the straight and narrow 



48 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

path which leads to life eternal. Those were 
her very words. After she had gone down- 
stairs we sat up in bed and talked about it 
and promised each other to be good, and 
crossed our hearts and "hoped to die," if we 
broke our promise. Then Anna was afraid 
we would die, but I told her I didn't believe 
we would be as good as that, so we kissed 
each other and went to sleep. 

Monday. — "Old Alice" was at our house 
to-day and Grandmother gave her some 
flowers. She hid them in her apron for she 
said if she should me;et any little children and 
they should ask for them she would have to 
let them go. Mrs Gooding was at our house 
to-day and made a carpet. We went over ' to 
Aunt Mary Carr's this evening to see the gas 
and the new chandeliers. They are brontz. 

Tuesday. — My three chapters that I read this 
morning were about Josiah's zeal and reforma- 
tion ; 2nd, Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar ; 
3rd, Jerusalem besieged and taken. The reason 
that we always read the Bible the first thing 
in the morning is because it says in the Bible, 
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness and all these things shall be 
added unto you." Grandmother says she 
hopes we will treasure up all these things in 
our liearts and practice them in our lives. I 
hope so, too. This morning Anna got very 
mad at one of the girls and Grandmother told 
her she ought to return good for evil and heap 



1854 49 

coeds of .fire on her head. Anna said she 
wi^ed she could and bum her all up, but I 
don't think she meant it. 

Wednesday. — I got up this morning at 
twenty minutes after five. I always brush 
my teeth every morning, but I forget to put it 
down here. I read my three chapters in Job 
and played in the garden and had time to 
read Grandmother a piece in the paper about 
some poor children in New York. Anna and 
I went over to Aunt Ann's before school and 
she gave us each two sticks of candy apiece. 
Part of it came from New York and part from 
Williamstown, Mass., where Henry goes to 
college. Ann Eliza is going down street 'with 
us this afternoon to buy us some new summer 
bonnets. They are to be trimmed with blue 
and white and are to come to five dollars. We 
are going to Mr Stannard's store also, to buy 
us some stockings. I ought to buy me a .new 
thimble and scissors for I carried my sewing 
to school to-day and they were inside of it 
very carelessly and dropped out and got lost. 
I ought to buy them with my own money, 
but I haven't got any, for I gave all I had 
(two shillings) to Anna to buy Louisia Field 
a cornelian ring.^ Perhaps Father will send 
me some money soon, but I hate to ask him 
for fear he will rob himself. I don't like to tell 
Grandfather how very careless I was, though 
I know he would say, '' Accidents will happeii." 

Thursday. — I was up learly this morning. 

D 



so VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

because a dressmaker, Miss Willson, is coming 
to make me a new calico dress.. It is white 
with pink spots in it and Grandfather bought it 
in New York. It is very nice indeed and I 
think Grandfather was very kind to get it 
for me. I had to stay at home from sphool 
to be fitted. I helped sew and run my dress 
skirt around the bottom and whipped it on 
the top. I went to school in the afternoon, 
but did not have my lessons very well. Miss 
Clark excused me because I was; not there in 
the morning. Some girls got up on our fence 
to-day and walked clear across it, the whole 
length. It is iron and very high and has a 
stone foundation. Grandmother asked them 
to get down, but I think they thought it was 
more fun to walk up there than it was on the 
ground. The name of the little girl that got 
up first was Mary Lapham. She is Lottie 
Lapham's cousin. I made the pocket for my 
dress after I got home from school and then 
Grandfather said he would take us out to ride, 
so he took us way up to Thaddeus Chapin s 
on the hill. Julia Phelps was there, playing 
with Laura Chapin, for she is her cousin. 
Henry and Ann Eliza Field came over to call 
this evening. Henry has come home from 
William's college on his vacation and he is a 
very pleasant young maii, indeed. I am read- 
ing a. continued story in Harpers Magazine. 
It is called Little Dorritt, by Charles Dickens, 
and is very interesting. 

Friday^ May. — Miss Clark told us we could 



1854 in 

have a picnic down to Sucker brook this after- 
noon and she told us to bring our rubbers and 
lunches by two o'clock ; but Granddiother was 
not willing to let us go ; not that she wished to 
deprive us of any pleasure for she said instead 
we could wear our new black silk basks and go 
with her to Preparatory lecture, so we did, but 
when we got there we found that Mr Daggett 
was out of town so there was no meeting. 
Then she told us we could keep dressed up 
and go over to Aunt Mary Carr's and take her 
some apples, aiid afterwards Grandfather took 
us to ride to see old Mrs Sanborn and old Mr 
and Mrs Atwater. He is ninety years old and 
blind and deaf, so we had quite a good time 
after all. 

Rev. Mr Dickey, of Rochester, agent for 
the Seaman's Friend Society, preached this 
morning about the poor little canal boy. His 
text was from the 107th Psalm, 23rd verse, 
**They that go down into the sea in ships," 
He has the queerest voice and stops off 
between his words. When we got home 
Anna said she would show us how he preached 
and she described what he said about a sailor 
in time of war. She said, " A ball came— and 
struck him there — another ball came — and 
struck him there — ^he raised his faithful sword— 
and went on — to victory — or death. " I expected 
Grandfather would reprove her, but be just 
smiled a queer sort of smile and Grandmother 
put her handkerchief up to her face, as she 
always does when she is amused about any- 
thing. I never heard her laugh out loud, but I 



an VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

suppose she likes funny things as well as any- 
body. She did just the same, this morning, 
when Grandfather asked Anna where the sun 
rose, and she said ''over by Gen. Granger^s 
house and sets behind the Methodist church." 
She said ' she saw it herself and should never 
forget it when any one asked her which was 
east or west I think she makes up more 
things than any one I know of. 

Sunday. — Rev. M. L. R. P* Thompson 
preached to-day. He used to be the minister 
of our church before Mr Daggett came. Some 
people call him Rev. ** Alphabet"* Thompson, 
because he has so n^any letters ia his name. 
He preached a very good sermon from the 
text, *' Dearly beloved, as much as lieth in you 
live peaceably with all men." I like to hear 
him preach, but not as well as I do Mr 
Daggett. I suppose I am more used to him. 

Thursday. — Edward Everett, of Boston, 
lectured in our church this evenings They 
had a platform built even with the tc^s of 
the pews, so he did not have to go up iiito 
the pulpit. Crowds and crowds came to hear 
him from all over evervwiiere. Grandmother 
let me go. They say ne is the most eloquent 
speaker in the U.S., but I have heard Mr 
Dsigg^tt when I thought he was just as good. 

Sunday. ^^'Wt went to church to-day and 
heUrd Rev. Mr Stowe preach. Hisi text was, 
**The poor ye have with you always and 



1864 58 

whensoever ye will ye may do them good." 
I never knew any one who liked to go to 
church as much as Grandmother does. She 
says she *' would rather be a doorkeeper in 
the house of our God, than to dwell in the 
tents of wickedness." They don't have women 
doorkeepers, "and I know she would not dwell 
a minute in a tent. Mr Coburn is the door- 
keeper in our church and he rings the bell every 
day at nine in the morning and at twelve and at 
nine in the evening, so Grandfather knows when 
it is time to cover up the fire in the fireplace 
and go to bed. I think if the President should 
come to call he would have to go home at nine 
o'clock. Grandfather's motto is : 

'' E^ly to bed and early to rise 
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." 

THesday. — Mrs Greig and Miss Chapin 
called to see us to-day. Grandmother says 
that we can return the calls as she does not 
visit any more. We would like to, for we 
always enjoy dressing up and making calls. 
Anna and I received two black veils in a letter 
to-day from Aunt Caroline Dey. Just exactly 
what we had wanted for a long while. Uncle 
Edward sent us five dollars and Grandmother 
said we could buy just what we wanted, so we 
went down street to look at black silk mantillas. 
We went to Moore's store and to Richardson's 
and to Collier's, but they asked ten, fifteen 
or twenty dollars for them, so Anna said she 
resolv.ed from now, henceforth and forever not 
to speftd her money for black silk mantillas. 



54 VELLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Sftnday.-^Rev. Mr Tousley preached to-day 
to the cnildren and told us how many steps 
it took to be bad. I think he said lying was. 
first, then disobedience to parents, broking 
the Sabbath, swearing, stealing, drunkenness. 
I don't remember just the order they came. 
It was very interesting, for he told lots of 
stories and we sang a great many times. I 
should think Eddy Tousley would be an awful 
good boy with his father in the house with him 
all the while, but probably he has to be away 
part of the time preaching to other children. 

Sunday. -^Vncle David Dudley Field and 
his daughter, Mrs Brewer, of Stockbridge, 
Mass., are visiting us. Mrs Brewer has a son, 
David Josiah, who is in Yale College. After 
he graduates he is going to be a lawyer and 
study in his Uncle David Dudley Field's office 
in New York. He was bom in Smyrna, Asia 
Minor, where his father and mother were 
missionaries to the Greeks, in 1837. Our 
Uncle David preached for Mr Daggett this 
afternoon. He is a very old man and left bis 
sermon at home and I had to go back after 
it. His brother, Timothy, was the first 
minister in our church, about fifty years ago. 
Grandmother says she came all the way from 
Connecticut with him on horseback on a pillion 
behind him. Rather a long ride, I should say. 
I heard her and Uncle David talking about 
their childhood and how they lived in Guilford, 
Conn., in a house that was built upon a rock. 
That was some time in the last century like 



1854f 5$ 

the house that it tells about in the Bible that 
was built on a rock. 

Sunday, August lo, 1854. — Rev. Mr 
Daggett's text this morning was, " Remember 
the , Sabbath day to keep it holy." Grand- 
mother said she thought the sermon did not 
do us much good for she had to tell us several 
times this afternoon to stop laughing. Grand- 
mother said we ought to be good Sundays 
if we want to go to neaven, for there it is one 
eternal Sabbath. Anna said she didn't want 
to be an angel just yet and I don't think there 
is the least danger of it, as far as I can judge. 
Grandmother said there was another verse, 
"If we do not have any pleasure on the 
Sabbath, or think any thoughts, we shall ride 
on the high places of the earth," and Anna 
said she liked that better, for she would rather 
ride than do anything else, so we both promised 
to be good. Grandfather told us they used 
to be more strict about Sunday than they 
are now. Then he told us a story, how he 
had to go to Geneva one Saturday morning 
in the stage and expected to come back in 
the evening, but there was an accident, so 
the stage did not come till Sunday morning. 
Church had begun and he told the stage driver 
to leave him right there, so he went in late 
and the stage drove on. The next day he 
heard that he was to come before the minister, 
Rev. Mr Johns, and the deacons and explain 
why he had broken the fourth commandment. 
When he got into the meeting Mr Johns asked 



S6 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

him what he had to say, and he Explained 
about the accident and asked them to read 
a verse from the 8th chapter of John, before 
they made up their minds what to do to him. 
The verse was, ' ' Let him that is without sin 
among you cast the first stone.*' Grandfather 
said they all smiled, and the minister said 
the meeting was out. Grandfather says that 
shows it is better to know plenty of Bible 
verses, for some time they may do you a 
great deal of good. We then recited the 
catechism and went to bed. 

August 21. — Anna says that Alice Jewett 
feels very proud because she has a little baby 
brother. They have named him John Harvey 
Jewett after his father, and Alice savs when 
he is bigger she will let Anna help her take 
him out to ride in his baby carriage. I suppose 
they will throw away their dolls now. 

Tuesday^ September i. — I am sewing a sheet 
over and over for Grandmother and she puts 
a pin in to show me my stint, before I can 
go out to play. I am always glad when I 
;et to it. I am making a sampler, too, and 
lave all the capital letters worked and now 
will make the small ones. It is done in cross 
stitch on canvas with different colour silks. I 
am going to work my name, too. I am also 
knitting a tippet on some wooden needles that 
Henry Carr made for me. Grandmother has 
ravelled it f out seversil times because I dropped 
stitches. It is rather tedious, but she says, 



1864 57 

*' If M first you don't succeed, try, try aigain." 
Some military soldiers went by the bouse to- 
day and played some beautiful music. Grand* 
father has a teter and swing for us in the 
back yard and we enjoy them usually, but 
to-night Anna slid off the teter board when 
she was on the ground and I was in the air 
and I came dowp sooner than I expected. 
There was a hand organ and monkey going 
by and she was in a hurry to get to the street 
to see it. She got there a good while before 
I did. The other day we were swinging 
and Grandmother called us in to dinner, but 
Anna said we could not go until we 'Met the. 
old cat die." Grandmother said it was more 
important that we should come when we are 
called. 

October. — Grandmother told us a story to- 
day, how when she was a litde girl, down 
in Connecticut, in 1794, she was on her way 
. to school one morning and she saw an Indian 
coming and was so afraid, but did not dare 
run for fear he would chase her. So she 
thought of the word sago, which means " good- 
morning," and when she got up close to him 
she dropped a curtesy and said "Sago," and 
he just went right along and never touched 
her at all She says she hopes we will always 
fa^ polite to every one, even tp strangers. 

November. — Abbie Clark's father has been 
elected Governor and she is going to Albany 
to live, for a while. We all congratulated 



58 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

her when she came to school this morning, 
but I am sorry she is going away. We will 
write to each other every week. She wrote 
a prophecy and told the girls what they were 
going to be and said I should be mistress 
of the White House. I think it will happen, 
about the same time that Anna goes to be 
a missionary. 

Decemier.-^There was a moonlight sleigh- 
ride of boys and girls last night, but Grand- 
father did not want us to go, but to-night he 
said he was going to take us to one himself. 
So after supper he told Mr Piser to harness 
the horse to the cutter and bring it around to 
the front gate. Mr Piser takes care of our 
horse and the Methodist Church. He lives in 
the basement. Grandfather sometimes calls 
him Shakespeare to us, but I don't know why. 
He doesn't look a,s though he wrote poetry. 
Grandfather said he was going to take us out 
to Mr Waterman Powers' in Farqiington and 
he did. They were quite surprised to see us, 
but very glad and gave us apples and dough- 
nuts and other good things. We saw Anne 
and Imogene and Morey and one little girl 
named Zinimie. They wanted us to stay all 
night, but Grandmother was expecting us. 
We got home safe about ten o'clock and had 
a very nice time. We never sat up so late 
before. 



i8S5 

Sunday, January 29. — Mr Daggett preached 
this morning from the text, Deut. 8:2: "And 
thou shalt remember all die way which the 
Lord thy God led thee.'' It is ten years to-day 
since Mr Daggett came to our church, and he 
told how many deaths there had been, and 
how many baptisms, and how many members 
had been added to the church. It was a very 
interesting sermon, and everybody hoped Mr 
Daggett would stay here ten years more, or 
twenty, or thirty, or always. He is the only 
minister that I ever had, and I don't ever want 
any other. We never could have stny one with 
such a voice as Mr Daggett's, or such beautiful 
eyes. Then he has such good sermons, and 
always selects the hymns we like best, and reads 
them in such a way. This morning they sang : 
•* Thus far the Lord has led me on, thus far 
His power prolongs my days." After he has 
been away on a vacation he always has for the 
first hymn, and we always turn to it before he 
gives it out: 

''Upward I lift mine eyes, 
From God is all my kid ; 
The God that built the skies, 
And earth and nature made. 

59 



flO VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

" God is the tower 
To which I fly 
His grace is nigh 
In every hour." 

He always prays for the oil of joy for 
mourning and tne garment of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness. 

January y 1855. — Johnnie Lyon is dead. 
Georgia Wilkinson cried awfully in school 
because she said she was engaged to him. 

■April. — Grandmother received a letter from 
Connecticut to-day telling of the death of her 
only sister. She was knitting before she got 
it and she laid it down a few moments and 
looked quite sad and said, '' So sister Anna is 
dead." Then after a little she went on with 
her work. Anna watched her and when we 
were alone she said to me, "Caroline, some 
day when you are about ninety you may be 
eating an apple or reading or doing something 
and you will get a letter telling of my dece2l$e 
and after you have read it you will go on as 
usual and just say, * So sister Anna is dead.' " 
I told her that I knew if I lived to be a hundred 
^nd beard that she was dead I should cry my 
eyes out, if I had any. 

Sunday. — There was a stranger preached for 
Dr Daggett this morning and his text was, 
" Man looketh upon the outward appearance 
but the Lord looketh on the heart. When 
we got home Anna said the minister looked 



1855 61 

as though he had been sick from birth and his 
forehead stretched from his nose to the back 
of his neck, he was so bald. Grandmother 
told her she ought to have been more 
interested in his words than in his looks, and 
that she must have very good eyes if she could 
see all that from our pew, which is the furthest 
from the pulpit of any in church, except Mr 
Gibson s, which is just the same. Anna said 
3he couldn't help seeing it unless she shut her 
eyes, and then every one would think she had 
gone to sleep. We can see the Academy boys 
from our pew, too. 

Mr Lathrop, of the seminary, is superin- 
tendent of the Sunday School now and he had 
a present to-day from Miss Betsey Chapin, and 
several visitors came i,n to see it presented : Dr 
Daggett, Mr and Mrs Alex. Howell, Mr 
Tousley, Mr Stowe, Mr and Mrs Gideon 
Granger and several others. The present was 
a certificate of life membership to something ; 
I did not hear what. It was just a large piece 
of parchment, but they said it cost $25. Miss 
Lizzie Bull is my Sunday School teacher now. 
She asked us last Sunday to look up a place in 
the Bible where the trees held a consultation 
tbgether, to, see which. one should reign over 
.them. I did not remember any such thing, 
but I looked it up in the concordance and 
found it in Judges 9:8. I found the meaning 
of it in Scott's commentary and wrote it 
down and she was very much pleased, and 
told us next Sunday to find out all about 
Absalom. 



6S VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

S^tember i. — Anna and I go to the seminary 
now. Mr Richards and Mr Tyler are the 
principals. Anna fell down and sprained her 
ankle to-day at the seminary, and had to be 
carried into Mrs Richards' library. She was. 
sliding down the bannisters with little Annie 
Richards. I wonder what she will do next. 
She has good luck in the gymnasium and 
can beat Emma Wheeler and Jennie Ruckle 
swinging on the pole and climbing the rope 
ladder, although they and Sarah Antes are 
aboyt as spry as squirrels and they are all 
good at ten pins. Susie Daggett and Lucilla 
Field have gone to Farmington, Conn., to 
school. 

Monday. — I received a letter from my 
brother John in New Orleans, and his ambro- 
type. He has grown amazingly. He also sent 
me a N. O. paper and it gave an account of 
the public exercises in the school, and said 
John spoke a piece called **The Baron's Last 
Banquet," and had great applause and it said 
he was "a chip off the old block." He is a 
very nice boy, I know that. James is sixteen 
years old now and is in Princeton College. 
He is studying German and says he thinks 
he will go to Germany some day and finish 
his education, but I guess in that respect he 
will be very much disappointed. Germany is 
a great ways off and none of our relations 
that I ever heard of have ever been there 
and it is not at all likely that any of them 
ever will. Grandfather says, though, it is 



1855 68 

better to aim too high than not high enough. 
James is a great boy to study. They had 
their pictures taken together once and John 
was holding some flowers and James a book 
and I guess he has held on to it ever since. 

Sunday. — Polly Peck looked so funny on 
the front seat of the gallery. She had on 
one of Mrs Greig's bonnets and her lace collar 
and cape and mitts. She used to be a milliner 
so she knows how to get herself up in style. 
The ministers have appointed a day of fasting 
and prayer and Anna asked Grandmother if 
it meant to eat as fast as you can. Grand- 
mother was very much surprised. 

November 25. — I helped Grandmother get 
ready for Thanksgfiving Day by stoning some 
raisins and pounding some cloves and cinnamon 
in the mortar pestle pounder. It is quite a 
job. I have been writing with a quill pen 
but I don't like it because it squeaks so. 
Grandfather made us some to-day and also 
bought us some wafers to seal our letters 
with, and some sealing wax and a stamp with 
'*R" on it. He always uses the seal on his. 
watch fob with '* B." He got some sand, too. 
Our inkstand is double and has one bottle for 
ink and the other for sand to dry the writing. 

December 20, 1855. — Susan B. Anthony is 
in town and spoke in Bemis Hall this after- 
noon. She made a special request that all 
the seminary girls should come to hear her 



64 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

as well as all the women and girls in town. 
She had a large audience and she talked 
very plainly about our rights and how we 
ought to stand up for them, and said the 
world would never go right until the women 
had just as much right to vote' and rule as 
the men. She asked us all to come Up and 
sign our names Who would promise to do 
all in our power to bring about that glad 
day when equal rights should be the law of 
the land. A whole lot of us went up and 
signed the paper. Wheh I told Grandmother 
about it she said she guessed Susan B. 
Anthony had foVgotten that St Paul said 
the women should keep silence. I told her, 
no, she didn't for she spoke particularly about 
St Paul and said if he had lived iri these 
times, instead of 1800 years ago, he would 
have been as anxious to have the women at 
the hejsid of the government as she was. I 
could. not make Urandmother agree with her 
at all and she said we might better all of us 
stayed at home. We went to prayer meeting 
this evening and a woman got up and talked. 
Her name was Mrs Sands. We hurried borne 
and told Grandmother and she said she probably 
meant all right and she hoped we did not laugh. 

Monday. -^l told Grandfather if he would 
bring me some ^sheets of foolscap p^per I 
would begin to write a book. So he put a 
pin on his sleeve to remind him of it and 
to-night he brought me a whole lot of it. 
I shall begin it to-morrow. 



1866 66 

Tuesday.— I decided to copy a lot of choice 
stories and have them printed and say they 
were " compiled by Caroline Cowles Richards/*^ 
it. is so much easier than making them iip. I 
spent three hours to-day copying one and am 
so tired I think I shall give it up. When I 
told Grandmother she looked disappointed and 
said my ambition was like '' the morning cloud 
and the early dew," for it soon vanished away. 
Anna said it might spring up again and 
bear fruit a hundredfold. Grandfather wants 
us to amount to something and he buys us 
good books whenever he has a chance. He 
bought me Miss Caroline Chesebro's book, 
" The Children of Light," and Alice and 
Phoebe Car/s Poems. He is always reading 
Channing's memoirs and sermons and Grand- 
mother keeps " Lady Huntington and Her 
Friends " next to *' Jay's Morning and Evening 
Exercises" and her Testament. Anna told 
Grandmother that she saw Mrs George Willson 
looking very steadily at us in prayer meeting 
the other night and she thought she might be 
planning to " write us up.*' Grandmother said 
she did not think Mrs Willson was so short 
of material as that would imply, and she feared 
she had some other reason for looking at us. 
I think dear Grandmother has a little grain of 
sarcasm in her nature, but she only uses it on 
extra occasions. Anna said, ''Oh, no ; she wrote 
the lives of the three Mrs Judson and I thought 
she might like for a change to write the bio- 
graphies of the ^two Miss Richards.'" Anna 
has what might be called a vivid imagination. 

B 



z856 

January 23.-^This is the third morning that 
I have come down stairs at exactly twenty 
minutes to seven. 1 went to school all day. 
Mary Paul and Fannie Palmer read ''The 
Snow Bird'' to-day. There were some funny 
things in it One was : " Why is a lady's hair 
like the latest news ? Because in the morniqg 
we always find it in the papers." Another 
was : " One rod makes an acher, as the boy 
said when the schoolmaster flogged him." 

This is Allie Fields birthday. He got a 
pair of slippers from Mary with the soles all 
on ; a pair of mittens from Miss Eliza Chapin, 
and Miss Rebecca Gorham is going to give 
him a pair of stockings when she gets them 
done. 

February 6. — We were awakened very early 
this morning by the cry of fire and the ring- 
ing of bells and could see the sky red with 
flames and knew it was the stores and we 
thought they were all burning up. Pretty 
soon we heard our big brass door knocker 
being pounded fast and Grandfather said» 
••Who's there?" ••Melville Arnold for the 
bank keys," we heard. Grandfather handed 

m 



1856 67 

them out and dressed as fast as he could and 
went down, while Anna and I just lay there 
and watched the flames and shook. He was 
gone two or three hours and when he came 
back he said that Mr Palmers hat store, Mr 
Underhills book store, Mr Shafer s tailor shop, 
Mrs Smith's millinery, Pratt & Smiths drug 
store, Mr Mitchell's dry goods store, two print- 
ing offices and a saloon were burned; It was 
a very handsome block. The bank escaped 
fire, but the wall of the next building ^ fell 
on it and crushed it. After school to-night 
Grandmother let us go down and see how 
the fire looked. It looked very sad indeed. 
Judge Taylor ofiered Grandfather one of the 
wings of his house for the bank for the present 
but he has secured a place in Mr Buhre s store 
in the Franklin Block. 

Thursday, February 7. — Di* and Aunt Mary 
Carr and Uncle Field and Aunt Ann were 
over at our house to dinner to-day and we had 
a fine fish dinner, not one of Gabriel's (the 
man who blows such a blast through the street, 
they call him Gabriel), but one that Mr Francis 
Granger sent to us. It was elegant. Such 
a large one it covered a big platter. This 
evening General Granger came in and brought 
a gentleman with him whose name was Mr 
Skinner. They asked Grandfather, as one 
of the trustees of the church, if he had any 
objection to a deaf and dumb exhibition there 
to-morrow night. He had no objection, so 
they will have it and we will go. 



68 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Friday. — We went and liked it very much. 
The man with them could talk and he in- 
terpreted it There were two deaf and dumb 
women and three children. They performed 
very prettily, but the smartest boy did the 
most He acted out David killing Goliath 
and the story of the boy stealing apples and 
how the old man tried to get him down by 
throwing grass at him, but finding that would 
not do, he threw stones which brought the 
boy down pretty quick. Then he acted a 
boy going fishing and a man being shaved in 
a barber shop and several other things. 1 
laughed out loud in school to-day and made 
some pictures on my slate and showed them 
to Clara Willson and made her laugh, and then 
we both had to stay after school. Anna was 
at Aunt Ann's to supper to-night to meet a 
little girl named Helen Bristol, of Rochester. 
Ritie Tyler was there, too, and they had a 
lovely time. 

February 8. — I have not written in my 
journal for several days, because I never like 
to write things down if they don't go right. 
Anna and I were invited to go on a sleigh- 
ride, Tuesday night, and Grandfather said he 
did not want us to go. We asked him if 
we could spend the evening with Frankie 
Richardson and he said yes, so we went down 
there and when the load stopped for her, we 
went too, but we did not enjoy ourselves at 
all and did not join in the singing. I had 
no idea that sleigh-rides could make any one 



1806 . 69 

feel so bad. It was not very cold, but I just 
shivered all the time. When the nine o'clock bell 
rang we were up by the ** Northern Retreat," 
and 1 was so glad when we got near home 
so we could get out. Grandfather and Grand- 
mother asked us if we had a nice time, but 
we got to bed as quick as we could. The next 
day Grandfather ,went into Mr Richardson's 
store and told him he was glad he did not 
let Frankie go on the sleign-ride, and Mr 
Richardson said he did let her go and we 
went too. We knew how it was, when we 
got home from school, because they acted 
so sober, and, after a while. Grandmother 
talked with us about it. We told her we 
were sorry and we did not have a bit good 
time and would never do it again. When 
she prayed with us the next morning, as she 
always does before we go to school, she said, 
*' Prepare us, Lord, for what thou art preparing 
for us," and it seemed as though she was 
discouraged, but she said she forgave us. I 
know one thing, we will never run away to 
arty more sleigh-rides. 

Febrtuiry 20. — Mr Worden, Mrs Henry 
Chesebro's father, was buried to-day, and Aunt 
Ann let Allie stay with us while she went to 
the funeral. I am going to Fannie Gaylord's 
party to-morrow night 

February 21.— -We had a very nice time at 
Fannie Gaylord's party and a splendid supper. 
Lupilla Field laughed herself almost to pieces 



70 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

when she found on going home that she had 
worn her leggins all the evening. We had a 
pleasant walk home but did not stay till it was 
Out. Some one asked me if I danced every set 
and I told them no, I set every dance. I told 
Grandmother and she was very much pleased. 
Some one told us that Grandfather and Grand- 
mother first met at a ball in the early settlement 
of Canandaig^a. I asked her if it was so and 
she said she never had danced since she became 
a professing Christian and that was more than 
fifty years ago. 

Grandfather heard to-day of the death of his 
sister, Lydia, who was Mrs Lyman Beecher. 
She was Rev. Dr Lyman Beecher's third wife. 
Grandmother says that they visited her once 
and she was quite nervous thinking about 
having such a great man as Dr Lyman Beecher 
for her guest, as he was considered one of the 
greatest men of his day, but she said she soon 
got over this feeling, for he was so genial and 
pleasant and she noticed particularly how he 
ran up and down stairs like a boy. I thihk 
thiat is very apt to be the way for " men are 
only boys grown tall." 

There was a Know Nothing convention in 
town to-day. They don't want any one but 
Americans to hold office, but I guess they will 
find that foreigners will get in. Our hired 
man is an Irishman and I think he would just 
as soon be '* Prisidint " as not. . 

February 22. — This' is such a beautiful day, 
the girls, wanted a holiday, but Mr Richards 



1856 71 

would not grant it We told him it was 
Washington's birthday and we felt very patriotic, 
but he was inexorable. We had a musical 
review and literary exercises instead in the 
afternoon and I put on my blue merino dress 
and my other shoes. Anna dressed up, too, 
and I curled her hair. The Primary scholars 
sit upstairs this term and do not have to pay 
any more. Anna and Emma Wheeler like it 
very much, but they do not sit together. We 
are seated alphabetically, and I sit with Mary 
Reznor and Anna with Mittie Smith. They 
thought she would behave better, I suppose, if 
they put her with one of the older girls, but I 
do not know as it will have the " desired effect," 
as Grandmother says. Miss Mary Howell 
and Miss Carrie Hart and Miss Lizzie and 
Miss MoUie Bull were visitors this afternoon. 
Gertrude Monier played and sang. Mrs 
Anderson is the singing teacher. Marion 
Maddox and Pussie Harris and Mary Daniels 
played on the piano. Mr Hardick is the teacher, 
and he played too. You would ' think he was 
trying to pound the piano all to pieces but he 
is a good player. We have two papers kept 
up at school. The Snow Bird and The Waif— 
one for the younger and the other for the older 
girls. Miss Jones, the composition teacher, 
corrects them both. Kate Buell and Anna 
Maria Chapin read The ^f^^ to-day and Gusta 
Buell and I rjcad The Snow Bird. She has 
beautiful curls and has two nice brothers also^ 
Albert and ArtJiur, and the g^rls all like them. 
They have not lived in towii very long. 



72 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

February 25. — I guess I won't fill up my 
journal any more by saying I arose this 
morning at the usual time, for I don't think it 
is a matter of life or death whether I get up 
at the usual time or a few minutes later and 
when I am older and read over the account of 
the manner in which I occupied my time in my 
younger days I don't think it will add particu- 
larly to the interest to know whether I used to 
get up at 7 or at a quarter before. I think 
Miss Sprague, our schoolroom teacher, would 
have been glad if none of us had got up at all 
this morning for we acted so in school. She 
does not want any noise during the three 
minute recess, but there has been a good deal 
all day. In singing class they disturbed Mr 
Kimball by blowing through combs. We took 
off our round combs and put paper over them 
and then blew — Mary Wheeler and Lottie 
Lapham and Anna sat nearest me and we all 
tried to do it, but Lottie was the only one who 
could make it go. He thought we all did, so 
he made us come up and sit by him. I did 
not want to a bit. He told Miss Sprague of 
us and she told the whole school if there was 
as much noise another day she would keep 
every one of us an hour after half-past 4. 
As soon as she said this they all began to 
groan. She said "Silence." I only made 
the least speck of a noise that no one heard. 

February 26, — To-night, after singing class, 
Mr Richards asked all who Uew urough 
combs to rise. I did not, because I could not 



1856 78 

make it go, but when he said all who groaned 
could rise, I did, and some others, but not half 
who did it. He kept us very late and we all 
had to sign an apology to Miss Sprague. 

Grandfather made me a present of a beautiful 
blue stone to-day called Malachite. Anna said 
she always thought Malachite was one of the 
prophets. 

March 3, 1856, — Elizabeth Spencer sits 
with me in school now. She is full of fun but 
always manages to look very sober when Miss 
Chesebro looks up to see who is making the 
noise over our way. I never seem to have that 
knack. Anna had to stay after school last 
night and she wrote in her journal that the 
reason was because "nature will out" and 
because **she whispered and didn't have her 
lessons, etc., etc., etc." Mr Richards has 
allowed us to bring our sewing to school but 
now he says we cannot any more. I am sorry 
for I have some embroidery and I could get 
one pantalette done in a week, but now it will 
take me longer. Grandmother has offered me 
one dollar if I will stitch a linen shirt bosom 
and wrist bands for Grandfather and make the 
sleeves. I have commenced but. Oh, my! it 
is an undertaking. I have to pull the threads 
out and then take up two threads and leave 
three. It is very particular work and Anna 
says the stitches must not be visible to the 
naked eye. I have to fell the sleeves with the 
tiniest seams and stroke all the gathers and 
put a stitch on each gather. Minnie Bellows 



74 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

is the best one in school with her needle and is 
a dabster at patching. She cut a piece right 
out of her new.calico dress and matched a new 
piece in and none of us could tell where it was. 
I am sure it would not be safe for me to try 
that. Grandmother let me ask three of the 
girls to dinner Saturday, Abbie Clark, Mary 
Wheeler and Mary Field. We had a big roast 
turkey and everything else to match. Good 
enough for Queen Victoria. That reminds me 
of a conundrum we had in The Snow Bird: 
What does Queen Victoria take her pills in ? 
In cider. (Inside her.) 

March lo. — My teacher Miss Sprague kept 
me after school to-night for whispering, and 
after all the others were gone she came to 
my seat and put her arm around me and 
kissed me and said she loved me very much 
and hoped I would not whisper in school any 
more. This made me feel very sorry and I 
told her I would try my best, but it seemed 
as though it whispered itself sometimes. I 
think she is just as nice as she can be and 
I shall tell the other girls so. Her home is 
in Glens Falls. 

Anna jumped the rope two hundred times 
to-day without stopping, and I told her that 
I read of a girl who did that and then fell 
right down stone dead. I don't believe Anna 
will do it again;. If she does I shall tell 
Grandmother. 

April ^.-^l walked down town with Grand- 



1856 75 

father this morniilg and it is such a beautiful 
day I felt glad that I was alive. The air was 
full of tiny little flies, buzzing around and 
going in circles and semi-circles as though 
they were practising calisthenics or dancing a 
quadrille. I think they were glad they were 
alive, too. I stepped on a big bug crawling 
on the walk and Grandfather said I ought to 
have brushed it aside instead of killing it. I 
asked him why and he said, "Shakespeare 
says, * The beetle that we tread upon feels a 
pang as great as when a giant dies.'" 

A man came to our door the other day and 
asked if *' Deacon " Beals was at home. I 
asked Grandmother afterwards if Grandfather 
was a Deacon and she said no and never had 
been, that people gave him the name when he 
was a young man because he was so staid and 
sober in his appearance. Some om told me 
ohce that I would not know my Grandfather 
if I should meet him outside the Corporation. 
I asked why and he said because he was so 
genial and told such good stories. I told him 
mat was just the way he always is at home. 
I do not know any one who appreciates real 
wit more than he does. He is quite sti'ong 
in his likes and dislikes, however. I have 
heard him say, 

" I do not like you, Dr FeU, 
The reason why, I caimot tell ; 
But this one thing I know full well, 
I do not like you, Dr Fell." 

Bessie Seymour wore a beautiful gold chain 



76 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

to school this morning and I told Grandmother 
that I wanted one just like it. She sg^id that 
outward adornments were not of as much value 
as inward graces and the ornament of a meek 
and quiet spirit, in the sight of the Lord, was 
of great price. I know it is very becoming to 
Grandmother and she wears it all the time but 
I wish I had a gold chain just the same. 

Grandfather noticed how bright and smart 
Bentley Murray was, on the street, and what 
a business way he had, so he applied for a 
place for him as page in the Legislature at 
Albany and got it. He is always noticing 
young people and says, " As the twig is bent, 
the tree is inclined." He says we may be 
teachers yet if we are studious now. Anna 
says, "Excuse me, please." 

Grandmother knows the Bible from Genesis 
to Revelation excepting the '* begats " and the 
hard names, but Anna told her a new verse 
this morning, " At Parbar westward, four at 
the causeway and two at Parbar." Grand- 
mother put her spectacles up on her forehead 
^ind just looked at Anna as though she had 
been talking in Chinese. She finally said, 
"Anna, I do not think that is in the Bible." 
She said, " Yes, it is ; I found it in i Chron. 
26 : 18." Grandmother found it and then she 
said Anna had better spend her time look- 
ing up more helpful texts. Anna then asked 
her if she knew who was the shortest man 
mentioned in the Bible and Grandmother said 
" Zaccheus." Anna sslid that she just read in 
the newspaper, that one, said "Nehimiah was" 



1856 77 

and another said '' Bildad the Shuhite'* and 
another said •* Tohi." Grandmother said it 
was very wicked to pervert the Scripture so, 
and she did not approve of it at all. I don't 
think Anna will give Grandmother any more 
Bible conundrums. 

April 12. — We went down town this 
morning and bought us some shaker bonnets 
to wear to school. They cost $i apiece and 
we got some green silk for capes to put on 
them. We fixed them ourselves and wore 
them to school and some of the girls liked 
them and some did not, but it makes no 
difference to me what they like, for I shall 
wear mine till it is worn out. Grandmother 
says that if we try to please everybody we 
please nobody. The girls are all having 
mystic books at school now and they are very 
interesting to have. They are blank books 
and we ask the girls and boys to write in them 
and then they fold the page twice over and 
seal it with wafers or wax and then write on 
it what day it is to be opened. Some of them 
say, ** Not to be opened for a year," and that 
is a long time to wait. If we cannot wait we 
can open them and seal them up again. I 
think Anna did look to see what Eugene 
Stone ' wrote in hers, for it does not look as 
smooth as it did at first. We have autograph 
albums too and Horace Finley gave us lots of 
small photographs. We paste them in the 
books and then ask the people to write their 
names. We have got Miss Upham's pi(;:ture 



78 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

and Dr and Mrs Daggett, General Granger's 
and Hon. Francis Granger's and Mrs Adele 
Granger Thayer and Friend Burling, Dt 
Jewett, Dr Cheney, Deacon Andrews and Dr 
Carr, and Johnnie Thompsons, Mr Noah T. 
Clarke, Mr E. M. Morse, Mrs George Willson, 
Theodore Barnum, Jim Paton's and Will Schley, 
Merritt Wilcox, Tom Raines, Ed Williams, 
Gus Coleman's, W. P. Fisk and lots of the 
girls' pictures besides. Eugene Stone and Tom 
Eddy had their ambrotypes taken together, in 
a handsome case and g^ave it to Anna. We 
are going to keep them always. 

April. — The Siamese twins are in town- and 
a lot of the girls went to see them in Bemis 
Hall this afternoon. It costs lo cents. Grand- 
mother let us go. Their names are Eng 
and Chang and they are not very handsome. 
They are two men joined together. I hope 
they like each other but I don't envy them any 
way. If one wanted to go somewhere and 
the other one didn't I don't see how they 
would manage it. One would have to give 
up, that's certain. Perhaps they are b6th 
Christians. 

April 30. — Rev. Henry M. Field, editor of 
the New York Evangelist^ and his little 
French wife are here visiting. She is a 
wonderful woman. She has written a book 
and paints beautiful pictures and was teacher 
of art in Cooper Institute, New York. He, is 
Grandmother's nephew and he brought her a 



1856 79 

picture of himself and his five brothers, taken 
for Grandmother, because she is the only aunt 
they have in the world, The rest are all 
dead. The men in the picture are Jonathan 
and Matthew and David Dudley and Stephen 
J. and Cyrus W. and Henry M. They are 
all very nice looking and Grandmother thinks 
a great deal of the picture. 

May 15. — Miss Anna Gaylord is one of my 
teachers at the seminary and when I told her 
that I wrote a journal every day she wanted 
me to bring her my last book and let her 
read it. I did so and she said she enjoyed 
it very much and she hoped I would keep 
them for they would be interesting for me to 
read when I am old. I think I shall do so. 
She has a very particular friend, Rev. Mr 
Beaumont, who is one of the teachers at the 
Academy. I think they are going to be 
married some day. I guess I will show her 
this page of my journal, too. Grandmother 
let me make a pie in a saucer to-day and it 
was very good. 

May. — We were invited to Bessie Seympur's 
party last night and Grandmother said we 
could go. The girls all told us at school 
that they were going to wear low neck and 
short sleeves. We have caps on the sleeves 
of our best dresses and we tried to get the 
sleeves out, so we could go bare arms, but 
we couldn't get them out. We had a very 
nice time, though, at the party. Some of the 



80 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Academy boys were there and they asked us 
to dance but of course we couldn't do that. 
We promenaded around the rooms and went 
out to supper with them. Eugene Stone and 
Tom Eddy asked to go home with us but 
Grandmother sent our two girls for us, Bridget 
Flynn and Hannah White, so they couldn't 
We were quite disappointed, but perhaps she 
won't send for us next time. 

May. — Grandmother is teaching me how to 
knit some mittens now, but if I ever finish 
them it will be through much tribulation, the 
way they have to be ravelled out and com- 
menced over again. I , think I shall know 
how to knit when I get through, if I never 
know how to do anything else. Perhaps I 
shall. know how to write, too, for I write all 
of Grandmother's letters for her, because it 
tires her to write too much. I have sorted 
my letters to-day and tied them in packages 
and found I had between 500 and 600. I 
have had about two letters a week for the past 
five years and have kept them all. Fs^ther 
almost always tells me in his letters to read 
my Bible and say my prayers and obey Grand- 
mother and stand up straight and. turn out 
my toes and brush my teeth and be good to 
my little sister. I have been practising all 
these so long I can say, as the young man 
did in the Bible when Jesus told him what 
to do to be saved, "all these have I kept 
from my youth up." But then, I lack quite 
a nuniber of things after all. I am not always 



1868 81 

strictly obedient For instance, I know Grand* 
mother never likes to have us read the secular 
part of the New York Observer on Sunday, 
so she puts it in the top drawer of the side* 
board until Monday, but I couldn't find any- 
thing interesting to read the other Sunday 
so I took it out and read it and put it back. 
The jokes and stories in it did not seem as 
amusing as usual so I think I will not do it 
again. 

Grandfather's favourite paper is the Boston 
Christian Register. He could not have one 
of them torn Up any more than a leaf df the 
Bible. He has barrels of them stored away 
in the garret. 

I asked Grandmother to-day to write a 
verse for me to keep always and she wrote 
a good one: "To be happy and live long 
the three grand essentials are : Be busy, love 
somebody and have high aims." I think, from 
^ I have noticed about her, that she has had 
this for her motto all her life and I don't think 
Anna and I can do very much better than to 
try and follow it too. Grandfather tells us 
sometimes, when she is not in the room, that 
the best thing we can do is to be just as near 
like Grandmother as we can possibly be. 

Saturday^ May 30. — Louisa Field came over 
to dinner to-day and brought Allie with her. 
We had roast chickens for dinner and lots of 
other nice things. Grandmother taught us 
how to string liUc blossoms for necklaces and 
also how to make curls of dandelion stems. 



82 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

She always has some things in the parlour 
cupboard which she brings .out on extra 
occasions, so she got them out to-day. They * 
are some Chinamen which Uncle Thomas 
brought home when he sailed around the 
world. They are wooden images standing in 
boxes, packing tea with their feet. 

Last week Jennie Howell invited us to go 
up to Black Point Cabin with her and to-day 
with a lot of grown-up people we went and 
enjoyed it. There was a little coloured girl 
there who waits oit the table and can row 
the boats too. She is Polly Carroll's grand- 
daughter, Mary Jane. She sang for us, 

** Nellie Bly shuts her eye when she goes to sleep, 
When she opens them again her eyes begin to peep ; 
Hi Nellie, Ho Nellie, listen love to me, 
I'll sing for you, I'll play for you, 
A dulcet melody." 

She is just as cute as she can be. She 
said Mrs Henry Chesebro taught her to read. 

Sunday, June i. — Rev. Dr Shaw, of 
Rochester, preached for Dr Daggett to-day 
and his text was : " Whosoever drinketh of 
this water shall thirst again, but whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him 
shall never thirst." He said by this water 
he meant the pleasures of this life, wealth and 
fame and honour, of which the more we have 
the more we want and are never satisfied, 
but if we drink of the water that Christ can 
eive us we will have happiness here and 
forever; It was a very good sermon and I iQve 



1856 88 

to hear him preach. Grandmother never likes 
to start for church until after all the Seminary 
girls and Academy boys have gone by, but 
this morning we got to the gate just as the 
boys came along. When Grandmother saw 
five or six hats come off and knew they were 
bowing to us, she asked us how we got 
acquainted with them. We told her that 
almost all the girls knew the Academy boys 
and I am sure that is true. 

Tuesday^ June 8. — We are cleaning house 
now and Grandmother asked Anna and me to 
take out a few tacks in the dining-room carpet. 
We did not like it so very well but we liked 
eating dinner in the parlor, as the table had 
to be set in there. Anna told us that when 
she got married we could come to visit her 
any time in the year as she was never going 
to clean house. We went down street on an 
errand to-night and hurried right back, as 
Grandmother said she should look at the 
clock and see how long we were gone. Emma 
Wheeler went with us. Anna says she and 
Emma are as ''thick as hasty pudding." 

Juite. — ^Rev. Frederick Starr, of Penn Yan„ 
had an exhibition in Bemis Hall to-day of a 
tabernacle just like the children of Israel carried 
with them to the Promised Land. We went 
to see it. He made it himself and said he 
took all the directions from the. Bible and knew 
where to put the curtains and the poles and 
everything. It was inter^ting but we thought 



M VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

it would be queer not to have any church to go 
to but one like that» that you could take down 
and put up aiid carry around with you wherever 
you went. 

June. — Rev. Mr Kendall is not going to 
preach in East Bloomfield any more. The 
paper says he is going to New York to live 
and be Secretary of the A.B:C.F.M. I asked 
Grandmother what that meant, and she said 
he would have to write down what the mission- 
aries 4o. I guess that will keep him busy. 
Grandfather s nephew, a Mr Adams of Boston 
and his wife, visited us about two weeks ago. 
He is the head of the firm Adams' Express Co. 
Anna asked them if they ever heard the conun- 
drum **What was Eve made for?" and they 
said no, so she told them the answer, " for 
Adam's express company." They thought it 
was quite good. When they reached home, 
they sent us each a reticule, with scissors, 
thimble, stiletto, needle-case and tiny pen- 
knife and some stamped embroidery. They 
must be very rich. 

Saturday Night, July, — Grandfather was 
asking us to-night how many things we could 
remember, and I told him I could remember 
when Zachiau-y Taylor died, and our church 
was draped in black, and Mr Daggett preached 
a funeral sermon about him, and I could 
remember when Daniel Webster died, and 
there was service held in the church and his 
last words, '* I still live," were put Up over the 



1866 85 

pulpit. He said he could remember when 
George Washington died and when Benjamin 
Franklin died. He was seven years old then 
and he was seventeen when Washington died. 
Of course his memory goes farther back 
than mine, but he said I did very well, 
considering. 

July. — I have not written in my journal for 
several days because we have been out of town. 
Grandfather had to go to Victor on business 
and took Anna and me with him. Anna says 
she loves to ride on the cars as it is fun to 
watch the trees and fences run so. We took 
dinner at Dr Balls and came home on the 
evening train. Then Judge Ellsworth came 
over from Penn Yan to see Grandfather on 
business and asked if he could take us home 
with him and he said yes, so we went and had 
a splendid time and stayed two days. Stewart 
was at home and took us all around driving and 
took us to the graveyard to see our mother s 
grave. I copied this verse from the grave- 
stone : 

" Of gentle seeming was her form 

And the soft beaming of her radiant eye 

Was sunlight to the beauty of her face. 

Peace, sacred peace, wa$ written on her brow 

And flowed in the low music of her voice 

Which came unto the listener like the tones of soothing 
Autumn winds. 

Her hands were full of consolations which she scattered 
^ free to all-^the poor, the sick, the sorrowful" 

I think she must have been exactly like 



86 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Grandmother only she was 32 and Grand- 
mother is 72, 

Stewart went to prayer meeting because it 
was Wednesday night, and when he came 
home his mother asked him if he took part 
in the meeting. He said he did and she asked 
him what he said. He said he told the story 
of Ethan Allen, the infidel, who was dying, 
and his daughter asked him whose religion 
she should live by, his or her mother's, and he 
said, ** Your mother's, my daughter, your 
mother's." This pleased Mrs Ellsworth very 
much. Stewart is a great boy and you never 
can tell whether he is in earnest or not. It 
was very warm while we were gone and when 
we got home Anna told Grandmother she was 
going to put on her barege dress and take a 
rocking-chair and a glass of ice water and a 
palm leaf fan and go down cellar and sit, but 
Grandmother told her if she would just sit still 
and take a book and get her mind on something 
else besides the weather, she would be cool 
enough. Grandmother always looks as cool 
as a cucumber even when the thermometer is 
90 in the shade. 

Sunday, August. — Rev. Anson D. Eddy 
preached this morning. His text was from 
the sixth chapter of John, 44th verse. "No 
man can come to me, except the Father which 
hath sent me, draw him." He is Tom Eddy's 
father, and very good-looking and smart too. 
He used to be one of the ministers of our 
church before Mr Daggett came. He wrote 



1856 87 

a book in our Sunday School library, about 
Old Black Jacob, and Grandmother loves to 
read it. We had a nice dinner to-day, green 
peas, lemonade and gooseberry pie. We had 
cold roast lamb too, because Grandmother 
never has any meat cooked on Sunday. 

Sunday. — Mr Noah T. Clarke is super- 
intendipnt of our Sunday School now, and this 
morning he asked, "What is prayer?" No 
once answered, so I stood up and gave the 
definition from the catechism. He seemed 
pleased and so was Grandmother when I told 
her. Anna said she supposes she was glad 
that **lier labor was not in vain in the Lord." 
I think she is trying to see if she can say Bible 
verses, like grown-up people do. 

Grandfather said that I did better than the 
little Voy he read about who, when a visitor 
asked the Sunday School children what was 
the ostensible object of Sabbath School instruc- 
tion, waited till the question was repeated three 
times and then stood up and said, "Yes, sir." 

^Wednesday. — We could not go to pra^yer 
meeting to-night because it rained, so Grand* 
mother said we could go into the kitchen and 
stand by the window and hear the Methodists. 
We could hear every word that old Father 
Thompson said, and every hymn they sung, 
but Mr Jervis used such big words we could 
not understand hini at all. 

Sunday. — Grandmother says she loves to 



88 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

look at the beautiful white heads of Mr Francis 
Granger and General Granger as they sit in 
their pews in church. She says that is what it 
means in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes 
where it says, "And the almond tree shall 
flourish." I don't know exactly why it means 
them, but I suppose she does. We haye got 
a beautiful almond tree in our front yard 
covered with flowers, but the blossoms are 
pink. Probably they had white oAes in 
Jerusalem, where Solomon lived. 

Monday. — Mr Alex. Jeffrey has conle from 
Lexington, Ky., and brought Mrs Ross and 
his three daughters, Julia, Shaddie and Bessie 
Jeffrey. Mrs Ross knows Grandmother and 
came to call and brought the girls. They ,are 
very pretty and General Granger's ^and- 
daughters; I think they are going to stay 
all summer. 

Thanksgiving Day. — We all went to church 
and Dr Daggett's text was : " He hath not 
dealt so with any nation." Aunt Glorianpa 
and her children were here and Uncle Field 
and all their family and Dr Carr and all his 
family. There were about sixteen of us in all 
and we children had a table in the corner all 
by ourselves. We had roast turkey and every- 
thing else we could think of. After dinner 
we went into the parlor and Aunt Glorianna 
played on the piano and sang, '' Flow eently, 
sweet Afton, among thy green braes, ' and 
" Poor Bessie was a sailor's wife." These are 



1856 89 

Grandfathers favourites. Dr Carr sang ** Tm 
sitting on the stile. Mary, where we sat side by 
side." He is a beautiful singer. It seemed 
just like Sunday, for Grandmother never likes 
to have us work or play on Thanksgiving Day, 
but we had a very good time, indeed, and 
were sorry when they all went home. 

Saturday, December 20. — Lillie Reeve and 
her brother, Charlie, have come from Texas 
to live. He goes to the Academy and she 
boards with Miss Antoinette Pierson, Miss 
Pierson invited me up to spend the afternoon 
and take tea with her and I went and had a 
very nice time. She told me about their camp 
life in Texas and how her mother died, and 
her little baby sister, Minnie, lives with her 
Grandmother Sheppard in Dansville. She is 
a very nice girl and I like her very much, 
indeed. 



x8S7 

March 6. — ^Anna and her set will have to 
square accounts with Mr Richards to-morrow, 
for nine of them ran away from school this 
afternoon, Alice Jewett, Louisa Field, Sarah 
Antes, Hattie Paddock, Helen Coy, Jennie 
Ruckel, Frankie Younglove, Emma Wheeler 
and Anna. They went out to Mr Sackett's, 
where they are making maple sugar. Mr and 
Mrs Sackett were at home and two Miss 
Sacketts and Darius, and they asked them 
in and gave them all the sugar they wanted, 
and Anna said pickles, too, and bread and 
butter, and the more pickles they ate the 
more sugar they could eat. I guess they will 
think of pickles when Mr Richards asks them 
where they were. I think EUie Daggett and 
Charlie Paddock went, too, and some of the 
Academy boys. 

March 7. — They all had to stay after school 
to-night for an hour and copy Dictionary. 
Anna seems reconciled, for she just wrote in 
her journal : "It was a very good plan to 
keep us because no one ever ought to stay 
out of school except on account of sickness, 
and if they once get a thing fixed in their 

90 



1857 91 

minds it will stay there, and when they 

grow up it will do them a great deal of 
good." 



April. — Grandfather gave us lo cents each 
this morning for learning the 46th Psalm and 
has promised us $1 each for reading the Bible 
through in a year. We were going to any 
way. Some of the girls say they should think 
we would be afraid of Grandfather, he is so 
sober, but we are not the least bit. He let 
us count $1,000 to-night which a Mr Taylor, 
a cattle buyer, brought to him in the evening 
after banking hours. Anybody must be very 
rich who has all that money of their own. 

Friday. — Our old horse is dead and we will 
have to buy another. He was very steady 
and faithful. One day Grandfather left him 
at the front gate and he started along and 
turned the comer all right, down the Metnodist 
lane and went way down to our barn doors 
and stood there until Mr Piser came and took 
him into the bam. People said they set their 
clocks by him because it was always quarter 
past 1 2 when he was driven down to the bank 
after Grandfather and quarter of i when he 
came back. I don't think the clocks would 
ever be too fast if they were set by him. We 
asked Grandfather what he died of and he 
said he had run his race but I think he meant 
he Jbad walked it, for I never saw him go off 
a jog in my life. Anna used to say he was 
taking a nap when we were out driving with 



9S VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Grandfather. I have written some lines in 
his memory and if I knew where he was 
buriedt I would print it on his head board 

Qld Dobbin's dead, that good old horse» 

We ne'er shall see him more, 
He always used to lag behind 

But now he's gone before. 

h is a parody on old Grimes is dead, which 
is in our reader, only that is a very Icftig poem. 
I am not going to show mine to Grandfather 
till he gets over feeling bad about the horse. 

Sunday. — Grandmother gave Anna, Dod- 
dridge's " Rise and Progress of Religion in 
the Soul" to read to-day. Anna says she 
thinks she v^ill have to rise and progress a 
good deal before she will be able to appreciate 
it. Baxter's "Saints Rest" would probably 
suit her better. 

Sunday, April 5. — An agent for the 
American Board of Foreign Missions preached 
this morning in our church from Romans 10: 
15 : " How shall they hear without a preacher 
and how shall they preach except they be 
sent." An agent from every society presentis 
the pause, whatever it is, once a year and some 
people think the anniversary comes around 
very often. I always think of Mrs George 
Wilson's poem on "A apele for air, pewer air, 
certin proper for the pews, which, she sez, is 
scarce as piety, or bank bills when ajents beg 
for mischuns, wich sum say is purty oftei^ 
(taint nothin' to me, wat I give aint nothin' 



1857 98 

to nobody).'* I think that is about the best 
poem of its kind I ever read. 

Miss Lizzie Bull told us in Sunday School 
to-day that she cannot be our Sunday School 
teacher any more, as she and her sister Mary 
are going to join the Episcopal Church. We 
hate to nave her go, but what can't be cured 
must be endured. Part of our class are going 
into Miss Mary Howell's class and part into 
Miss Annie Pierce's. They are both splendid 
teachers and Mi$s Lizzie Bull is another. We 
hacl preaching in our church this afternoon, 
too. Rev. Samuel Hansom Cox, of Le Roy 
Female Seminary, preached. He is a great 
man, very large, long white hair combed back. 
I think if a person once saw him they would 
never forget him. He preached about 
Melchisedek, who had neither "beginning of 
days or end of life." Some people thought 
that was like his sermon, for it was more 
than one hour long. Dr Cox and Mrs Taylor 
came to call and asked Grandfather to let 
me go to Le Roy Female Seminary, but Grand- 
father likes Ontario Female Seminary better 
than any other in the world. We wanted 
Grandmother to have her picture taken, but 
she did not feel able to go to Mr Finley's, 
so he came up Tuesday and took it in our 
dining-room. She had her best cap on and 
her black silk dress and sat in her high back 
rocking chair in her usual comer near the 
window. He brought one up to show \x$ 
and we like it so much. Anna looked at 
it and kissed it and said, ''Grandmother, I 



V 



M VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

think you are perfectly beautiful/' She smiled 
and very modestly put her handkerchief up 
to her face and said, '' You foolish child/' 
but I am sure she was pleased, for how could 
she help it ? A man came up to the open 
window one day where she was sitting, with 
something to sell, and while she was talking 
to him he said, ''You must have' been hand- 
some, lady, when you were young/' Grand- 
mother said it was because he wanted to sell 
his wares, but we thought he knew it was 
so. We told her she couldn't get around it' 
that way and we asked Grandfather and he 
said it was true. Our Sunday School class 
went to Mr Finley's to-day and had a group 
ambrotype taken for our teacher, Miss Annie 
Pierce; Susie Daggett, Clara Willson, Sarah 
Whitney, Mary Field and myself. Mary 
Wheeler ought to have been in it, too, but 
we couldn't get her to come. We had very 
good success. 

Thursday. — We gave the ambrotype to Miss 
Pierce and she liked it very muoi and so 
does her mother and Fannie. Her mother 
is lame and cannot go anywhere so we often 
go to see her and sne is always glad to see 
us and so pleasant. 

May 9. — Miss Lizzie Bull came for me to 
go botanising with her this morning and we 
were gone from 9 till 12, and went clear 
up to the orphan asylum. I am afraid I am 
not a bom botanist, for all the time she was 
analysing the flowers and telling me about 



1867 96 

the corona and the corrolla and the calyx and 
the stamens and petals and pistils, I was 
thinking what beautiful hands she had and 
how dainty they looked, pulling the blossoms 
all to pieces. I am afraid I am commonplace, 
like the man we read of in English Literature, 
who said "a primrose by the river brim, a 
yellow primros<^, was to him, and it was 
nothing more." 

Mr William Wood came to call this afternoon 
and gave us some naorning - glory seeds to 
sow and told us to write down in our journals 
that he did so. So here it is. What a funny 
old man he is. Anna and Emma Wheeler 
went to Hiram Tousley's funeral to-day. She 
has just written in her journal that Hiram's 
corpse was very perfect of him and that Fannie 
looked very pretty in black. She also added 
that after the funeral Grandfather took Aunt 
Ann and Lucilla out to ride to Mr Howe's 
and just as they got there it sprinkled. She 
says she don't know "weather" they got wet 
or not. She went to a picnic at Sucker Brook 
yesterday afternoon, and this is the way she 
described it in her journal. " Miss Hurlburt 
told us all to wear rubbers and shawls and 
bring some cake and we would have a picnic. 
We nad a very warm time. It was very warm 
indeed and I was most roasted and we were 
all very thirsty indeed. We had in all the 
party about 40 of us. It was very pleasant 
and I enjoyed myself exceedingly. We had 
boiled eggs, pickles, Dutch cheese and sage 
cheese and loaf cake and raisin cake, pound 



96 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

cake, dried beef and capers» jam and tea cakes 
and gingerbread, and we tried to catch some 
fish but we couldn't, and in all we had a 
very nice time. I forgot to say that 1 picked 
some flowers for my teacher. I went to bed 
tired out and worn out/' 

Her next entry was the following day when 
she and the other scholars dressed up to 
** speak pieces." She says, "After dinner I 
went and put on my rope pettipoat and lace 
one over it and my barege de laine dress and 
all my rings and white bask and breastpin 
and worked handkerchief and spoke my piece. 
It was, 'When I look up to yonder sky.' It 
is very pretty indeed and most all the girls 
said I looked nice and said it nice. They 
were all dressed up, too." 

Thursday. — I asked Grandfather why we 
do not have gas in the house like almost 
every one else and he said because it was 
bad for the eyes and he liked candles and 
sperm oil better. We have the funniest little 
sperm oil lamp with a shade on to read by 
evenings and the fire on the hearth gives 
Grandfather and Grandmother all the light 
they want, for she knits in her corner and 
we read aloud to them if they want us to. 
I think if Grandfather is proud of anything 
besides being a Bostonian, it is that every- 
thing in the house is forty years old. The 
shovel and tongs and andirons and fender 
and the haircloth sofa and the haircloth rock- 
ing chair and the flag bottomed chairs painted 



1867 97 

dark green and the two old arm-chairs which 
belong to them and no one else ever think 
of touching. There is a wooden partition 
between the dining-room and parlor and they 
say it can slide right up out of sight on pulleys, 
so that it would be all one room. We have 
often said that we wished we could see it go 
up but they say it has never been up since 
the day our mother was married and as she 
is dead I suppose it would make them feel 
bad, so we probably will always have it down. 
There are no curtains or even shades at the 
windows, because Grandfather says, ** light is 
sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold 
the sun." The piano is in the parlor and. it 
is the same one that our mother had when 
she was a little girl but we like it all the 
better for that. There are four large oil paint- 
ings on the parlor wall, De Witt Clinton, Rev, 
Mr Dwight, Uncle Henry Channing Beals and 
Aunt Lucilla Bates, and no matter where we 
sit in the room they are waftching and their 
eyes seem to move whenever we do. There 
is quite a handsome lamp on a mahogany 
centre table, but I never saw it lighted. We 
have four sperm candles in four silver candle- 
sticks and when we have company we light 
themi. Johnnie Thompson, son of the minister, 
Rev. M. L. R. P., has come to the academy 
to school and he is very full of fun and got 
acquainted with all the girls very quick. He 
told us this afternoon to have " the other candle 
lit" for he was coming down to see us this 
evening. Will S.chley heard him say it and h^ 

G 



98 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

said he wa^ coming too. His mother says 
she always . knotvs when he has been at our 
house, because she finds sperm on his clothes 
and has to take brown paper and a hot flatiron 
to get it out, but still I do not think that 
Mrs Schley cares, for she is a very nice lady 
and she and I are great friends. I presume 
she would just as soon he would spend part 
of his time with us as to be with Horace Finley 
all the time. Those boys are just like twins. 
We never see one without being sure that 
the other is not far away. 

Later. — The bpys came and we had a very 
pleasant evening but when the 9 o'clock bell 
fang we heard Grandfather winding up the 
clock and scraping up the ashes on the hearth 
to cover the fire so it would last till morning 
and we all understood the signal and they bade, 
us good-night. '* We w.on't go home till morn- 
ing " is a song that will never be sung in this 
house. 

June 2. — Abbie Clark wrote such a nice 
piece in my album to-day I am going to write 
it in my journal. Grandfather says he likes 
the sentiment as well as any in my book. 
This is it : "It has been said that the friend- 
ship of some people is like our shadow, keeping 
close by us while the sun shines, deserting us the 
moment we enter the shade, but think not such 
is the friendship of Abbie S. Clark. " Abbie ^nd 
I took supper at Miss Mary Howell's to-night 
to see Adele Ives. We had a lovely time. 



KR'S ROCKINU CHAIN. 



1867 99 

Tuesday.— Gentral Tom Thumb was in town 
to-day and everybody who wanted to see him 
could go to Bemis Hall. Twenty-five cents 
for old people, and lo cents for children, but 
we could see him for nothing when he drove 
around town. He had a little carriage and 
two little bits of ponies and a little boy with 
a high silk hat on, for the driver. He sat 
inside the coach but we could see him looking 
out. We went to the hall in the afternoon 
and the man who brought him stood by him 
and looked like a giant and told us all about 
him. Then he asked Tom Thumb to make 
a speech and stood him upon the table. He 
told all the ladies he would give them a kiss 
if they would come up and buy his picture. 
Some of them did. 

Friday, July. — 1 have not kept a journal for 
two weeks because we have been away visit- 
ing. Anna and I had an invitation to go to 
Utica to visit Rev. and Mrs Brandigee. He 
is rector of Grace Episcopal church there and 
his wife used to belong to Father's church 
in Morristown, K.J. Her name was Miss 
Condict. Rev. Mr Stowe was going to 
Hamilton College at Clinton, so he said he 
would take us to Utica. We had a lovely 
time. The comer stone of the church was 
laid while we were there and Bishop De Lancey 
came and stayed with us at Mr Brandigee'^s. 
He is a very nice ,man and likes children. 
One morning they had muffins for breakfast 
and Anna asked if they were ragamuffins. Mr 



100 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Brandigee said, '' Yes, they are made of rags 
and brown paper/' but we knew he was just 
joking. When we came away Mrs Brandigee 
gave me a prayer book and Anna a vase, but 
she didn't like it and said she should tell Mrs 
Brandigee she wanted a prayer book too, so 
I had to change with her. When we came 
home Mr Brandigee put us in care of the con- 
ductor. There was a fine soldier looking man 
in the car with us and we thought it was his 
wife with him. He wore a blue coat and 
brass buttons, and some one said his name was 
Custer and that he was a West Point cadet 
and belons^ed to the regular army. I told 
Anna she had better behave or he would see 
her, but she would go out and stand on the 
platform until the conductor told her not to. 
I pulled her dress and looked very stern at 
her and motioned toward Mr Custer, but it 
did not seem to have any impression on her. 
I saw Mr Custer smile once because my words 
had no effect. I was glad when we got to 
Canandaigua. I heard some one say that 
Dr Jewett was at the depdt to take Mr Custer 
and his wife to his house, but I only saw 
Grandfather coming after us. He said, " Well, 
girls, you have been and you have got back," 
but I could see that he was glad to have us 
at home again, even if we are ** troublesome 
comforts/' as he sometimes says. 

July 4.-^Barnum's circus was in town to-day 
and if Grandmother had not seen the pictures 
on the hand bills I think she would have let 



1857 101 

us go. She said it was aU right to look at the 
creatures God had made but she did not think 
He ever intended that women should go only 
half dressed and stand up and ride on horses 
bare back, or jump through hoops in the air. 
So we could not go. We saw the street 
parade though and heard the band play and 
saw the men and women in a chariot, all 
dressed so fine, and we saw a big elephant 
and a little one and a camel with an awful 
hump on his back, and we could hear the lion 
roar in the cage, as they went by. It must 
have been nice to see them close to and 
probably we will some day. 

August 8. — Grandfather has given me his 
whole s^t of Waverley novels and his whole 
set of Shakespeare's plays, and has ordered 
Mr Jahn, the cabinetmaker, to make me a 
black walnut bookcase, with glass doors and 
three deep drawers underneath, with brass 
handles. He is so good. Anna says perhaps 
he thinks I am gomg to be married and go 
to housekeeping some day. Well, perhaps 
he does. Stranger things have happened. 
'' Barkis is willin'," and I always like to 
please Grandfather. I have just read David 
Copperfield and wisis so interested I could not 
leave it alone till I finished it. 

September i. — ^Anna and I have been in 
Litchfield, Conn., at Father's school for boys.. 
It is kept in the old Beecher house, where 
Dr Lyman Beecher lived. We went up into 



Itm VnXAOE LIFE IN ABCERICA 

the attic, which is light and airy, where they 
say he used to write his famous sermons. 
James is one of the tfeachers and he came for 
us. We went to Farming^on and saw all the 
Cowles families, as they are our cousins. Then 
we drove by the Charter Oak and saw all 
there is left of it It was blown down last year 
but the stump is fenced around. In Hartford 
we visited Gallaudet's Institution for the deaf 
and dumb and went to the historical rooms, 
where we saw some of George Washington's 
clothes and his watch and his penknife, but 
we did not see his little hatchet We stayed 
two weeks in New York and vicinity before 
we came home. Uncle Edward took us to 
Christie's Minstrels and the Hippodrome, so 
we saw all the things we missed seeing when 
the circus was here in town. Grandmother 
seemed surprised when we told her, but she 
didn't say much because she was so glad to 
have us at home again. Anna said we ought 
to bring a present to Grandfather and Grand- 
mother, for she read one tinie about some 
children who went away and came back grown 
up and brought home " busts of the old philo- 
sophers for the sitting - room," so as we 
saw some busts of George Washington ^nd 
Benjamin Franklin in plaster of paris we 
bought them, for they look almost like marble 
and Grandfather and Grandmother like them. 
Speaking of busts reminds me of a conundrum 
I heard while I was gone. " How do we know 
that Poe's Raven .was a dissipated bird ? 
Because he was all night on a bust." Grand- 



1 



1 



1807 106 

father took us down to the bank to see How 
he had it made over while we were gone. 
We asked him why he had a beehive hanging 
out for a sign and he said, '' Bees store ueir 
hoi\ey in the summer for winter use and men 
ought to store dieir money against a rainy 
day.^ He has a swing door to the bank witn 
'' Push " on it. He said he saw a man study- 
ing it one day and finally looking up he 
spelled p-u-s-h, push (and pronounced it like 
mush)^ ''What does that mean?" Grand- 
father > showed him what it meant and he 
though^ it was very convenient. He was 
about ^ thick-headed as the man who saw 
some sjiuffers and asked what they were for 
and when told to snufF the candle with, he 
immediately snuffed the candle with his fingers 
and put ^ in the snuffers and said, '' Law sakes, 
how haiidy!" Grandmother really laughed 
when sh^ read this in the paper. 

Septefn^er. — Mrs Martin, of Albany, is 
visiting Aunt Ann, and she brought Grand- 
mother a fine fish that was caught in the 
Atlantic Ocean. We went over and asked her 
to come to dinner to-morrow and help eat it 
and she said if it did not rain pitchforks she 
would come, so I think we may expect her. 
Her granddaughter, Hattie Blanchard, has 
come here to go to the seminary and will 
live with Aunt Ann. She is a very pretty 
girl. Mary Field came over this morning and 
we went down street together. Grandfather 
went with ys to Mr Nat Gorham's store, as 



104 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

he is selling off at cost, and got Grandmother 
and me each a new pair of kid gloves. Hers 
are black and mine are green. Hers cost six 
shillings and mine cost five shillings and six 
pence ; very cheap for such nice ones. Grand- 
mother let Anna have six little girls here to 
supper to-night -.Louisa Field, Hattie Padaock, 
Helen Coy, Martha Densmore, Emma Wlieeler 
and Alice Jewett. We had a splendid supper 
and then we played cards. I do not; mean 
regular cards, mercy no ! Grandfather thinks 
those kind are contagious or outrageous or 
something dreadful and never keeps them in 
the house^ Grandmother said they found a 
pack once, when the hired man s room was 
cleaned, and they went into the fire pretty 
quick. The kind we played was just '* Dr 
Busby," and another "The Old Soldier and 
His Dog." There are counters with them, 
and if you don't have the card called for you 
have to pay one into the pool. It is real 
fun. They all said they had a very nice 
time, indeed, when they bade Grandmother 
good-night, and said : "Mrs Beals, you must 
let Carrie and Anna come and see jus some 
time," and she said she would. I think it is 
nice to have company. 

Christmas. — Grandfather and Grandmother 
do not care much about making Christmas 
presents. They say, when they were young 
no one observed Christmas or New Years, 
but they always kept Thanksgiving day. Our 
cousins, the Fields and Carrs, gave us several 



1867 105 

presents and Uncle Edward sent us a basket 
full from New York by express. Aunt Aiin^ 
gave me one of the Lucy books and a 
Franconia story book and to Anna, "The 
Child's Book on Repentance." When Anna 
saw the title, she whispered to me and said if 
she had done anything she was sorry for she 
was willing to be forgiven. I am afraid she 
will never read hers but I will lend her mine. 
Miss Lucy Ellen Guernsey, of Roche3ter, gave 
me "Christmas Earnings" and wrote in it, 
"Carrie C. Richards with the love of the 
author." I think that is very nice. Anna and 
I were chattering like two magpies to-day, and 
a man came in to talk to Grandfather on 
business. He told us in an undertone that 
children should be seen and not heard. After 
he had gone I saw Anna watching him a 
long time till he was only a speck in the 
distance and I asked her what she was doing. 
She said she was doing it because it was a 
sign if you watched persons out of sight you 
would never see them again. She does not 
seem to have a very forgiving spirit, but 
you can't always tell. 

Mr William Wood, the venerable philan- 
thropist of whom Canandaigua has been justly 
proud for many years, is dead. I have pre- 
served this poem, written by Mrs George 
Willson in his honour: 

" Mr Editor — The following lines were written by 
a lady of this village, and have been heretofore 
published, but on reading in your last paper the 



106 VILLAOE LIFE IN AMERICA 

interesting extract relating to the late William Wood, 
Esq., it was suggested that they be again published, 
not only for their merit, but also to keep alive the 
memory of one who has done so much to ornament 
our village. — H.** 

When first on this stage of existence we come 

Blind, deaf, puny, helpless,' but not, alas, dumb^ 

What can please us, and soothe us, and make us sleep 

good? 
To be rocked in a cradle ; — and cradles are wood. 

When older we grow, and we enter the schools 
Where masters break rulers o'er boys who break rules, 
What can curb and restrain and make Taws understood 
But the birch-twig and ferule ? — and both are of wood. 

When old age — ^second childhood, takes vigor away, 
And we totter along toward our home in the clay, . 
What can aid us to stand as in manhood we stood 
But our tried, trusty staff? — and the staff is of wood. 

And when from this stage of existence we go. 
And death drops the curtain on all scenes below, 
In our coffins we rest, while for worms we are food. 
And our last sleeping place, like our first, is of wood. 

Then honor to wood ! fresh and strong may it grow, 
'Though winter has silvered its summit with snow ; 
Embowered in its shade long our village has stood ; 
She'd scarce be Canandaigua if stripped of her Wood. 

Stanza added after the death of Mr Wood 

The sad time is come ; she is stript of her Wood, 
'Though the trees that he planted still stand where they 

stood, 
Still with storms they can wrestle with arms stout and 

brave ; 
Still they wave o'er our dwellings — they droop o'er his 

grave ! 
Alas ! that the life of the cherished and good 
Is more frail and more brief than the trees of the wood ! 



x858 

February 24, 1858. — The boarders at the 
Seminary had some tableaux last evening and 
invited a great many from the village. They 
were splendid. Mr Chubbuck was in nearly 
all of them. The most beautiful one was 
Abraham offering up Isaac. Mr Chubbuck 
was Abraham and Sarah Ripley was Isaac. 
After the tableaux they acted a charade. The 
word was ** Masterpiece." It was fine. After 
the audience got half way out of the chapel 
Mr Richards announced "The Belle of the 
Evening." The curtain rose and every one 
rushed back, expecting to see a young lady 
dressed in the height of fashion, when immedi- 
ately the Seminary bell rang ! Mr Blessner s 
scholars gave all the music and he stamped 
so, beating time, it almost drowned the music. 
Some one suggested a bread and milk poultice 
for his foot Anna has been taking part in 
some private theatricals. The play is in 
contrast to " The Spirit of '76 " and the idea 
carried out is that the men should stay at 
home and rock the cradles and the women 
should take the rostrum. Grandmother was 
rather opposed to the idea, but every one 
wanted Anna to take the part of leading lady, 

107 



108 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

so she consented. She even helped Anna 
make her bloomer suit and sewed on the 
braid for^trimming on the skirt herself. She 
did not know that Anna's opening sentence 
was, "How are you, sir ? Cigar, please ! *' 
It was acted at Mrs John Bate^' house on 
Gibson Street and was a great success, but 
when they decided to repeat it another evening 
Grandmother told Anna she must choose 
between going oii the stage and living with 
her Grandmother, so Anna gave it up and 
some one else took her part. 

March. — There is a great deal said about 
spirits nowadays and a lot of us girls went 
into one of the recitation rooms after school 
to-night and had a spiritual seance. We sat 
around Mr Chubbuck's table and put our hands 
on it and it moved around and stood on two 
legjs and sometimes on one. I thought the 
girfe helped it but they said they didn't. We 
heard some loud raps, too, but they sounded 
very earthly to me. Eliza Burns, one of the 
boarders, told us if we would hold our breath 
we could pick up one of the girls from the 
floor and raise her up over our heads with 
one finger of each hand, if the girl held her 
breath too. We tried it with Anna and did 
it, but w^ had such hard work to keep from 
laughing I expected we would drop lieir. 
There is nothing very spirituelle about any 
of us. I told Grandmother and she said we 
reminded her of Jemima Wilkinson, who told 
all her followers that the world was to come 



1858 109 

to an end on a certain day and they should 
all be dressed in white and get up on the 
roofs of the houses and be prepared to ascend 
and meet the Lord in the air. I asked Grand- 
mother what she said when nothing happened 
and she said she told them it was because 
they did not have faith enough. If they had, 
everything would have happened just as she 
said. Grandmother says that one day at a 
time has always been enough for her and that 
to-morrow will take care of the things of itself. 

May 1858. — Several of us girls went up into 
the top of the new Court, House to-day as far 
as the workmen would allow us. We got a 
splendid view of the lake and of all the country 
round. Abbie Clarke climbed up on a beam and 
recited part of Alexander Selkirk's soliloquy : 

• 

'' I'm monarch of all I survey, 
My rights there are none to dispute : 
From the center, all round to the sea, 
I'm lord of the fowl and brute." 

I was Standing on a block and she said I 
looked like " Patience on a monument smiling 
at Grief." I am sure she could not be taken 
for "Grief." She always has some quotation 
on her tongue's end. We were down at 
Sucker Brook the other day and she picked 
her way out to a big stone in the middle of the 
stream and, standing on it, said, in the words 
of Rhoderick Dhu, 

" Come one, come all, this rock shall fly 
From its firm base, as soon as I." 



no VILI.AGE TJFE IN AMERICA 

Just then the big stone tipped over and she 
had to wade ashore. She is not at all afraid of 
climbing and as we left the Court House she 
said she would like to go outside oii the cupola 
and help Justice balance the scales. 

A funny old man came to our house to-day 
as he wanted to deposit some money and 
reached the bank after it was closed. We 
were just sitting down to dinner so Grand- 
father asked him to stay and have " pot luck " 
with us. He said that he was very much 
" obleeged " and stayed and passed his plate a 
second time for more of our very fine "pot 
luck.** We had boiled beef and dumplings 
and I suppose he thought that was the name 
of the dish. He talked so queer we couldn't 
help noticing it. He said he "heered" so and 
he was **afeered" and somebody was ve;ry 
"deef" and they ** hadn't ought to have done 
it" and "they should have went" and such 
things. Anna and I almost laughed but 
Grandmother looked at us with her eye and 
forefinger so we sobered down. She told us 
afterwards that there are many good people 
in the world whose verbs and nouns do not 
2Lgtee, and instead of laughing at them we 
should be sure that we always speak correctly 
ourselves. Very true. Dr Daggett was at 
the Seminary one day when we had public 
' exercises and he told me afterwards that I 
said "sagac-ious" for * * saga-cious " and Aunt 
Ann told me that I said "epi-tome** for **e-pit- 
o-me." So "people that live in glass houses 
shouldn't throw stones." 



i I 



1858 ni 

Sunday. — Grandfather read his favorite 
parable this morning at prayers — the one 
about the wise man who built his house upon 
k rock and the foolish man who built upon 
the sand. He reads it good, just like a 
minister. He prays good, too, and I know 
his prayer by heart He says, "Verily Thou 
art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant 
of us and Israel acknowledge us not," and 
he always says, " Thine arm is not shortened 
that it cannot save, or Thine ear heavy that 
it cannot hear." I am glad that I can re- 
member it. 

June. — Cyrus W. Field called at our house 
to-day. He is making a trip through thie 
States and stopped here a few hours because 
Grandmother is his aunt. He made her a 
present of a piece of the Atlantic cable about 
six inches long, which he had mounted for her. 
It is a very nice souvenir. He is a tall, fine 
looking man and very pleasant. 

Sunday ^ July i^^ 1858. — This is Communion 
Sunday and quite a number united with the 
church on profession of their faith. Mr Gideon 
Granger was one of them. Grandmother says 
that she has known him always and his father 
and mother, and she thinks he is like John, 
the beloved disciple. I think that any one 
who knows him, knows what is meant by a 
gentle-man. I. have a picture of Christ in 
the Temple with the doctoris, and His face 
is almost exactly like Mr Granger's. Some 
others who joined to-day were Miss Belle 



112 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Paton, Miss Lottie Clark and Clara WiHson, 
Mary Wheeler and Sarah Andrews. Dr 
JDaggett always asks all the communicants to 
sit in the body pews and the non-communi- 
cants in the side pews. We always feel like 
tiie goats on the left when we leave Grand- 
father, and Grandmother and go on the side, 
but we won't have to always. Abbie Clark, 
Mary Field and I think we will join at the 
communion in September. Grandmother says 
she hopes we realize what a solemn thing it is. 
We are fifteen years old iso I think we ought 
to. No one who hears Dr Daggett say in 
his beautiful voice, *' I now renounce all ways 
of sin as what I truly abhor and choose the 
service of God as my greatest privilege," could 
think it any trifling matter. I feel as though I 
couldn't be bad if I wanted to be, and when he 
blesses them and says, ** May the God of the 
Everlasting Covenant keep you firm and holy 
to the end through Jesus Christ our Lord," 
everthing seems cqmplete. He always says at 
the close, " And when they had sung an hymn 
they went out into the Mount of Olives." 
Then he gives out the hymn, beginning : 

" According to Thy gracious word, 
In deep humility. 
This win I do, my dying Lord 
I will remember Thee." 

And the last verse : 

'' And when these failing lips grow dumb, 
And mind and memory flee. 
When in Thy kingdom Thou shalt come, 
Jesus remember me." 



1868 118 

Deacon Taylor always starts the hymn. 
Deacon Taylor and Deacon Tyler sit on one 
side of Dr Daggett and Deacon Clarke and 
Deacon Castle on the other. Grandfather and 
Grandmother joined the church fifty-one years 
ago and are the oldest living members. She 
says they have always been ghid that they took 
this step when they were young. 

August 17. — There was a celebration in town 
to-day because the Queen's message was re- 
ceived on the Atlantic cable. Guns were 
fired and church bells rune and flags were 
waving everywhere. In tne evening there 
was a torchlight procession and the town was 
all lighted up except Gibson Street. AUie 
Antes died this morning, so the people on 
that street kept their houses as usual. Anna 
says that probably AUie Antes was better pre- 
pared to die than any other little girl in town. 
Atwater hall and the academy and the hotel 
were more brilliantly illuminated than any 
other buildings. Grandfather saw something 
in a Boston paper that a minister said in his 
sermon about the Atlantic cable and he wants 
me to write it down in my journal. This is it: 
"The two hemispheres are now successfully 
united by means of the electric wire, but what 
is it, after all, compared with the instantaneous 
communication between the Throne of Divine 
Grace and the heart of man ? Offer up your 
silent petition. It is transmitted through 
realms of unmeasured space more rapidly than 
the lightning's flash, and the answer reaches 

a 



114 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

the soul e're the prayer has died away on the 
sinners lips. Yet this telegraph, performing 
its saving functions ever since Christ died for 
men on Calvary, fills not the world with 
exultation and shouts of gladness, with illum- 
inations and bonfires and the booming of 
cannon. The reason is, one is the telegraph 
of this world and may produce revolutions on 
earth; the other is the sweet communication 
between Christ and the Christian soul and 
will secure a glorious immortality in Heaven." 
Grandfather appreciates anything like that and 
I like to please him. 

Grandfather says he thinks the 19th Psalm 
is a prophecy of the electric telegraph. •' Their 
line is gone out through all the earth and their 
words to the end of the world." It certainly 
sounds like it. 

Sunday. — Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is stay- 
ing at Judge Taylor's and came with them to 
church to-day. Everybody knew that he ws^s 
here and thought he would preach and the 
church was packed full. When he came in he 
went right to Judge Taylors pew and sat with 
him and did not preach at all, but it was some- 
thing to look at him. Mr Daggett was away 
on his vacation and Rev. Mr Jervis of the 
M. E. church preached. I heard sbme people 
say they guessed even Mr Beecher heard some' 
new words to-day, for Mr Jervis is quite a 
hand to make them up or find very long hard 
ones in the dictionary* 

August 30, 1858. — Rev. Mr Tousley was 






1858 115 

hurt to-day by the falling of his barn which 
was being moved, and they think his back is 
broken and if he lives he csln never sit up 
again. Only last Sunday he was in Sunday 
School and had us sing in memory of AUie 
Antes : 

" A mourning class, a vacant seat, 
Tell us that one we loved to meet 
Will join our youthful throng no more, 
Till all these changing scenes are o'er/' 

And now he will never mbet with us again 
and the children will never have another 
minister all their own. He thinks he may 
be able to write letters to the children and 
perhaps write his own life. We all hope he 
may be able to sit up if he cannot walk. 

We went to our old home in Penn Yan 
visiting last week and stayed at Judge Ells- 
worth's. We called to see the TunniclifTs and 
the Olivers, Wells, Jones, Shepards, Glovers, 
Bennetts, Judds and several other families. 
They were glad to see us for the sake of 
our father and mother. Father was their 
pastor from 1841 to 1847. 

Some one told us that when Bob and Henry 
Antes were small boys they thought they would 
like to try, just for once, to see how it would 
see;m to be bad, so in spite of all of Mr Tousley's 
sermons they went out behind the barn one 
day and in a whisper Bob said, " I swear;" and 
Henry said, "So do I.** Then they came into 
the house looking guilty and quite s^irprised, 
I suppose, that they were not struck dead just 
as Ananias and Sapphira were fpr. lying. 



116 VILLAGE UFB IN AMERICA 

SipUmb^. — I read in a New York paper 
to-day that Hon. Geome Peabody, of England, 
presented Cyrus W. r ield widi a solid silver 
tea service of twelve pieces, which cost $4,ooa 
The pieces bear likenesses of Mr Peabody and 
Mr Field, with the coat of arms> of the Field 
family. The epergne is supported by a base 
representing the genius of America. 

We had experiments in the philosophy 
class to-day and took electric shocks. Mr 
Chubbuck managed the battery which has two 
handles attached. Two of the girls each held 
one of these and we all took hold of hands 
making the circuit complete. After a while 
it jerked us almost to pieces and we aisked 
Mr Chubbuck to turn it off. Dana Luther, 
one of the Academy boys, walked up from the 
Postoffice with vat this noon. He lives in 
Naples and is Florence Younglove's cousin. 
We went to a. ball game down on Pleasant 
Street after school. I got so far ahead of 
Anna coming home she called me her '' distant 
relative." 



X8S9 

Januarv^ 1859. — Mr Woodruff came to see 
Grandfather to ask him if we could attend 
his singing school. He is going to have it 
one evening each week in the chapel of our 
church. Quite a lot of the boys and girls are 
going, so we were glad when Grandfather 
gave his consent. Mr Woodruff wants us 
all to sing' by note and teaches ** do re me 
fa sol la si do" from the blackboard and 
beats time with a stick. He lets us have a 
recess, which is more fun than all the rest 
of it. He says if we practice well we can 
have a concert in Bemis Hall to end up with. 
What a treat that will be ! 

February. — Anna has been teasing me all 
the morning about a verse which John Albert 
Granger Barker wrote in my album. He has 
a most fascinating lisp when he talks, so she 
says this is the way the verse . reads : 

" Beauty of perthon, ith thertainly chawming 
Beauty of feachure, by no meanth alawming . 
But give me in pwefrence, beauty of mind, 
Or give me Cawwie, with all thwee combined." 

It takes Anna to find "amuthement" in 
** eve wy thing." 

117 



118 VILLAOE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Mary Wheeler came over and pierced my 
ears to-day^ so I can wear my new earrings 
that Uncle Edward sent me. She pinched 
niy ear until it was numb and then pulled a 
needle through, threaded with silk. Anna 
would not stay in the room. She wjants her's 
done but does not dare. It is all the fashion 
for girls to cut off their hair and friz it. Anna 
and I have cut off ours and Bessie Seymour 
got me to cut off her lovely long hair to-day. 
It won't be very comfortable for us to sleep 
with curl papers all over our heads, but we 
must do it now. I wanted my new dress 
waist which Miss Rosewarne is making, to 
hook up in front, but Grandmother said I 
would have to wear it that way all the rest 
of my life so I had better be content to hook 
it in the back a little longer. She said when 
Aun^t Glorianna was married, in 1.848, it was 
the fashion for grown up women to have their 
waists fastened in the back, so the bride had 
hers made that way but she thought it was 
a very foolish and inconvenient fashion. It 
is nice, though, to dress in style and look 
like other people. I have a .Garibaldi waist 
and a Zouave jacket and a balmoral skirt. 

Sunday. — I asked Grandmother if I could 
write a letter to Father to-day, and she said 
I could begin it and tell him that I went to 
church and what Mr Daggett's text was and 
then finish it to-morrow. I did so, but I 
wish I could do it all after I began. She 
said a verse from the Tract Primer: 



1859 119 

y A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content 
And strength for the toil of to-morrow, 
But a Sabbath profaned, whatever be gained, 
la a certain forerunner of sorrow." 

Monday. — We dressed up in new fangled 
costumes to-day and wore them to school. 
Some of us wore dresses almost up to our 
knees and some wore them trailing on the 
ground. Some wore their hair twisted in knots 
and some let theirs hang down their backs. 
I wore my new waterfall for the first time 
and Abbie Clark said I looked like '* Hagar in 
the Wilderness." When she came in she 
looked like a fashion plate, bedecked with 
bows and ribbons and her hair up in a 
hew way. When she came in the door she 
stopped and said solemnly, "If you have 
tears prepare to shed them now ! " Laura 
Chapin would not participate in the fun, for 
once. She said sne thought " Beauty un- 
adorned was the dorndest." We did not have 
our lesson in mental philosophy very well so 
we asked Mr Richards to explain the nature of 
dreams and their cause and effect. He gave 
us a very interesting talk, which occupied 
the whole hour. We listened with breathless 
attention, so he must have marked us loo. 

There was a lecture at the seminary to-night 
and Rev. Dr Hibbard, the Methodist minister, 
who lives next door above the Methodist 
church, came home with us. Grandmother 
was very much pleased when we told her. 

March i . — Our hired man has started a hot 



ISO VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

bed and we went down behind the barn to see 
it Grandfather said he was up at 6 o'clock 
and walked up as far as Mr Greig's lions and 
back again for exercise before breakfast. He 
seems to have the bloom of youth on his face 
as a reward. Anna says she saw " Bloom of 
youth " advertised in the drug store and she is 
going to buy some. I know Grandmother 
won't let her for it would be like " taking coal 
to New Castle." 

April. — Anna wanted me to help her write 
a composition last night, and we decided to 
write on "Old Journals/' so we got hers and 
mine both out and made selections and then 
she copied them. When we were on our way 
to school this morning we met Mr E. M. Morse 
and Anna asked him if he did not want to read 
her composition that Carrie wrote for her. 
He made a very long face and pretented to be 
ynuch shocked, but said he would like to read 
it, so he took it and also her album, which she 
asked him to write in. At night, on his way 
home, he stopped at our door and left them 
both. When she looked in her album, she 
found this was what he had written : 

**Anna, when you have grown old and wear 
spectacles and a cap, remember the boyish young 
man who saw your fine talents in 1859 and was 
certain you would add culture to nature and become 
the pride of Canandaigua. Do not forget also that 
no one deserves praise for anything done by others 
and that your progress in wisdom and goodness will 
be watched by no one more anxiously than by yoUr 
true friend, E. M. MOMl." 



1859 ISl 

I think she might as well told Mr Morse 
that the old journals were as much hers as 
mine ; but I tnink she likes to make out she is 
not as good as she is. Sarah Foster helped us 
to do our arithmetic examples to-day. She is 
splendid in mathematics. 

Much to our surprise Bridget Flynn, who 
has lived with us so long, is married. We 
didn't know she thought of such a thing, but 
she has gone. Anna and I have learned how 
to make rice and cornstarch puddings. We 
have a new girl in Bridget's place but I don't 
think she will do. Grandmother asked her to- 
day if she seasoned 'the g^vy and she said, 
either she did or she didn't, she couldn't tell 
which. Grandfather says he thinks she is a 
little lacking in the "upper story." 

June. — A lot of us went down to Sucker 
Brook this afternoon. Abbie Clark was one 
and she told us some games to play sitting 
down on the grass. We played "Simon says 
thumbs up " 3,nd then we pulled the leaves off 
from daisies and said, 

*' Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief, 
Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief,'' 

to see which we would marry. The last leaf 
tells the story. Anna's came " rich man " every 
time and she thinks it is true because Eugene 
Stone has asked to marry her and he is quite 
well off. She is 13 and he is 17. He is going 
now to his home in St. Paul, Minn., but he is 
coming back for her some day. Tom Eddy is 



1M VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

going to be groomsman and Emma Whfeeler 
bridesmaid They have all the arrangements 
made. She has not . shown any of Eugene 
Stone's notes to Grandmother yet for she does 
not think it is worth while. Anna broke the 
seal on Tom Eddy's page in her mystic book, 
although he wrote on it, "Not to be opened 
until December 8, 1859." He says : 

" Dear Anna,-— I hope that in a few years I will 
see you and Stone living on the bsmks of the 
Mississippi, in a little cottage,.as snug as a bug in a 
rug, living in peace, so that I can come and see you 
and have a good time.— Yours, 

Thos. C. Eddy." 

Anna says if she does marry Eugene Stone 
and he forgets, after two or three years to be 
as polite to her as he is now she shall look up 
at him with her sweetest smile and say, ** Miss 
Anna, wotf t you have a little more sugar in 
your tea?" When I went to school this 
morning Juliet Ripley asked, " Where do you 
think Anna Richards is now ? Up in a cherry 
tree in Dr Cheney's garden." Anna loves 
cherries. We could see her from the chapel 
window. 

June 7. — Alice Jewett took Anna all through 
their new house to-day which is being built 
and then they went over to Mr Noah T. 
Clarke's partly finished house and went all 
through that. A dog canie out of Cat Alley 
and barked at them and scared Anna awfully. 
She said ^he almost had a conniption fit but 



1859 1S8 

Emma kept hold -of her. She is so afraid of 
thunder and lightning and dogs. 

Old Friend Burling brought Grandfather a 

^specimen of his handwriting to-day to keep. 

It is beautifully written, like copper plate. 

This is the verse he wrote and Grandfathibr 

gave it to me to paste in my book of extracts : 

DIVINE LOVE. 

Could we with ink the ocean fill, 

Was the whole earth of parchment made, 
Was every single stick a quill, 

And every man a scribe by trade ; 
To write the love of God above 

Would drain the ocean dry ; 
Nor could that scroll contain the whole 

Though stretched from sky to sky. 

Transcribed by William S. Burling, Canan- 
daigua, 1859, in the 83rd year of his age. 

Sunday, Decefnber 8, 1 859. — Mr E. M. Morse 
is our Sunday School teacher now and the 
Sunday School room is so crowded that we 
go up into the. church for our class recitation. 
Abbie Glark, Fannie Gaylord and myself are 
the only scholars, and he calls us the three 
..christian graces, faith, hope and charity, and 
the greatest of these is charity. I am the 
tallest, so he says I am charity. We recite in 
Mr Gibson's pew, because it is farthest away 
and we do not disturb the other classes. He 
gave us some excellent advice to-day as to 
what was right and said if we ever had any 
doubts about anything we should never do it 



1S4 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

and should always be perfecdy sure we are in 
the right before we act He gave us two 
weeks ago a poem to learn by, Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge. It is an apostrophe to God and very 
hard to learn. It is blank verse and has 85 
lines in it. I have it committed at last and we 
are to recite it in concert The last two lines 
are, " Tell thou the silent sky and tell the stars 
and tell yon rising sun, Earth with its thousand 
voices praises God." Mr Morse delivered a 
lecture in Bemis Hall last Thursday night. 
The subject was, "You and I." It was 
splendid and he lent me the manuscript after- 
wards to read. Dick Valentine lectured in the 
hall the other night too. His subject was 
" Prejudice." There was some difference in 
the lectures and the lecturers. The latter was 
more highly colored. 

Friday. — The older ladies of the town have 
formed a society for the relief of the poor and 
are going to have a course of lectures in Bemis 
Hall under their auspices to raise funds. The 
lecturers are to be from the village and are to 
be : Rev. O. E. Daggett, subject, ** Ladies and 
Gentleman ; " Dr Harvey Jewett, ** The House 
We Live in," Prof. F. E. R. Chubbuck, 
•'Progress;" Hon. H. W. Taylor, "The 
Empty Place ; " Prof. E. G. Tyler, " Finance ; " 
Mr N. T. Clark, "Chemistry;" E. M. Morse, 
"Graybeard and His Dogmas." The young 
ladies have started a society, too, and we have 
great fun and fine suppers. We met at Jennie 
Howell's to organise. We are to meet once 



1809 198 

in two weeks and are to present each member 
with an album bed quilt with all our names on 
whien they are married. Susie Daggett says 
she 4s never going to be married, but we must 
make her a quilt just the same. Laura Chapin 
sang " Mary Lindsey, Dear," and we got to 
laughing so that Susie Daggett and I loist our 
equilibrium entirely, but I found mine by the 
time I got home. Yesterday afternoon Grand- 
father asked us if we did not want to go to ride 
with him in the big two seated covered carriage 
which he does not get out very often. We 
said yes, and he stopped for Miss Hannah 
Upham and took her with us. She sat on 
the back seat with me and we rod^ clear to 
Farmington and kept up a brisk conversation 
all the way. She told us how she became lady 
principal of the Ontario Female Seminary in 
1830. She was still telling us about it when 
we got back home. 

December 23. — We have had a Christmas 
tree and many other attractions in Seminary 
chapel. The day scholars and townspeople 
were permitted to participate and we had a 
post office and received letters from our friends. 
Mr E. M. Morse wrote me a ficticious one, 
claiming to be written from the north pole, ten 
years hence. I will copy it in my journal for 
I may lose the letter. I had some gifts on the 
Christmas tree and gave some. I presented 
my teacher, Mr Chubbuck, with two large 
hemstitched handkerchiefs with his initials 
embroidered in a corner of each. As he is 



196 VILLAGE M!^ IN AMERICA 

favored with the euphonious name of Frank^ 
Emery Robinson Chubbuck it was a work of 
art to make his initials look beautiful. I 
inclosed a stanza in rhyme : 

Amid the changing scenes of life 

. If any storm should rise, , . 

May you ever have a handkerchief 
To wipfe your weeping eyes. 

Here is Mr Morse's letter : 

"North Pole, \o January 1869 

" Miss Carrie Richards, 

** My dear Young Friend. — It is very cold here 
and the pole is covered with ice. I climbed it 
yesterday to take an observation and ^arrange our 
flag, the Stars and Stripes, which I hoisted immedi- 
ately on my arrival here, ten years ago. I thought 
I should freeze and the pole was so slippery that L 
was in great danger of coming down faster than was 
comfortable. Although this pole has been used for 
more than 6,000 years it is still as good as new. The 
works of the Great Architect do not wear out. It is 
now ten years since I have seen you and my other 
two Christian Graces and I have no doubt of your 
present position among the most brilliant, noble and 
excellent women in all Anlerica. I always knew and 
recognised your great abilities. Nature was very 
generous to you all and you Were enjoyipg fine 
advantages at the time I last knew you. I thought 
your residence with your Grandparents an admirable 
school for you, and you and your sister were most 
evidently the best joy of their old age. You certainly, 
owe much to them. At the time that I left my 
three Christiian Graces, Mrs Grundy was sometimes 
malicious enough to say. that they were injuring 
-themselves by flirting. I always told the old lady 



1859 lt7 

that I had the utmost confidence in the judgment 
and discretion of my pupils and that they would be 
very careful and prudent in all their conduct. I 
confessed that flirting was wrong and very injurious 
to any one who was guilty of it, but I was very sure 
that you were not I could not believe that you 
would disappoint us all and become only ordinary 
women, but that you would become the most exalted 
characters, scorning all things unworthy of ladies and 
Christians and 1 was right and Mrs Grundy was 
wrong. When the ice around the pole thaws out I 
shall make a flying visit to Canandaigua. I send you 
a tame polar bear for a pl^ayfellow. This letter will 
be conveyed to you by Esquimaux express.— Most 
truly yours, E. M. MORSE." 

I think some one must have shown some 
verses that we girls wrote, to Mrs Grundy and 
made her think that our minds were more upon 
the young men than they were upon our studies, 
but if people knew how much time we spent 
on Paley's " Evidences of Christianity " and 
Butler's Analogy and .Karnes' Elements of 
Criticism and Ty tier's Ancient History and 
Olmstead's Mathematical Astronomy and our 
French and Latin and arithmetic and algebra 
and geometry and trigonometry and book- 
keeping, they would know we had very little 
time to think of the masculine genden 



z86o 

New Years Day. — We felt quite grown up 
to-day and not a little scared when we saw 
Mr Morse and Mr Wells and Mr Mason and 
Mr Chubbuck all coming in together to make 
a New Year's calL They made a tour 6f the 
town. We did not feel so flustrated when Will 
Schley and Horace Finley came in later. Mr 
Oliver Phelps, Jr., came to call upon Grand- 
mother. Grandfather made a few calls, too, 

January 5. — Abbie Clark and I went up to 
see Miss Emma Morse because it is her 
birthday. We call her sweet Miss Emma 
and we think Mr Manning Wells does, too. 
We went to William Wirt Howe's lecture in 
Bemis Hall this evening. He is a very smart 
young man. 

Anna wanted to walk down a little ways 
with the girls after school so she crouched 
down between Helen Coy and Hattie Paddock 
and walked past the house. Grandmother 
always sits in the front window, so When Anna 
came in she asked her if she had to stay after 
school and Anna gave her an evasive answer. 
It reminds me of a story I read, of a lady who 
told the servant girl if any one called to give 

1S8 



1860 1S9 

an evasive answer as she did not wish to 
receive calls that day. By and by the door 
bell rang ailci the servant went to the door. 
When she came bac^ the ladv asked her how; 
she dismissed the visitor. She said, ''Shure 
ye towld me to g^ve an evasive answer, so 
when the man asked if the lady of the house 
was at home I said, * Faith ! is your grand- 
mother a monkey ! '" We never say anything 
like that to our "dear little lady," but we just 
change the subject and divert the conversa- 
tion into a more agreeable channel. To-day 
someone came to see Grandmother when we 
were gone ai>d told her that Anna and some 
others ran away from school. Grandmother 
told Anna she hoped she would never let any 
one bring her such a report again. Anna said 
she would not, if she could possibly help it! 
I wonder who it was. Some one who believes 
in the text, " Look not every man on his own 
things, but every man also on the things of 
others." Grandfather told us to-night that we 
ought to be. very careful what we do as we are 
making history each day. Anna says she shall 
try not to have hers as dry as some that she 
had to learn at school to-d^y. 

February 9. — Dear Miss Mary Howell 
was married to-day to Mr Worthington, of 
Cincinnati. 

February 28. — Grandfather asked me to read 
Abraham Lincoln's speech aloud which he 
delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, last 



130 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

evening, under the auspices of the Republican 
Club. He was escorted to the platform by 
David Dudley Field and introduced by William 
Cullen Bryant. The New York Times called 
him "a noted political exhorter and Prairie 
orator." It was a thrilling talk and must have 
stirred men's souls. 

April I. — Aunt Ann was over to see us 
yesterday and she said she made a visit the 
day before out at Mrs William Gbrham's. 
Mrs Phelps and Miss Eliza Chapin also went 
and they enjoyed talking over old times when 
they were young. Maggie Gorham is going 
to be married on the 25th to Mr Benedict of 
New York. She always said she would not 
marry a farmer and would not live in a cobble- 
stone house and now she is going to do both, 
for Mr Benedict has bought the farm near 
theirs and it has a cobblestone house. We 
have always thought her one of the jolliest 
and prettiest of the older set of young ladies. 

* 

June. — Mrs Annie Granger asked Anna and 
me to come over to her house and see her 
baby. We were very eager to go and wanted 
to hold it and carry it around the room. She 
was willing but asked us if we had any pins 
oh us anywhere. She said she had the nurse 
sew the baby's clothes on every morning so 
that if she cried she would know whether it 
was pains or pins. We said we had no pins 
on us, so we stayed quite a while and held 
little Miss Hattie to our heart s content. She 



1860 181 

is named for her aunt, Hattie Granger. Anna 
says she thinks Miss Martha Morse will give 
medals to her and Mary Daggett for being 
the most meddlesome girls in school, judging 
from the number of times she has spoken to 
them to-day, Anna is getting to be a 
regular punster, although I told her that 
Blair's Rhetoric says that punning is not the 
highest kind of wit. Mr Morse met us 
coming from school in the rain and said it 
would not hurt us as we were neither sugar 
nor salt. Anna said, ** No, but we are lasses." 
Grandmother has been giving us sulphur and 
molasses for the purification of the blood and 
we have to take it three mornings and then 
skip three mornings. This morning Anna com- 
menced going through some sort of gymnastics 
and Grandmother asked her what she was 
doing, and she said it was ber first morning 
to skip. 

Abbie Clark had a large tea-party this 
afternoon and evening — Seminary girls and a 
few Academy boys. We had a fine supper 
and then played games. Abbie gave us one 
which is a test of memory and we tried to 
learn it from her but she was the only one 
who could complete it. I can write it down, 
but not say it : 

A good fat hen. 

Two ducks and a good fat hen. 

Three . plump partridges, two ducks and a 
good fat hen^ 

Four squaking wild geese^ three plump 
partridges, etc. 



182 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Five hundred Limerick oysters. 

Six pairs of Don Alfonso's tweezers. 

Seven hundred rank and file Mac(edonian 
horsemen drawn up in line of battle. 

Eight cages of heliogabalus sparrow kites. 

Nine sympathetica!, epithetical, categorical 
propositions. 

Ten tentapherical tubes. 

Eleven fiat bottom fly boats sailing between 
Madagascar and Mount Palermo. 

Twelve European dancing masters, sent to 
teach the Egyptian mummies how to dance, 
against Hercules' wedding day. 

Abbie says it was easier to learn than the 
multiplication table. They wanted some of us 
to recite and Abbie Clark gave us Lowell's 
poem, *' John P. Robinson, he, says the worldll 
go right if he only says Gee ! " I gave another 
of Lowell's poems, " The Courtin'." Julia 
Phelps had her guitar with her by request and 

?layed and sang for us very sweetly. Fred 
larrington went home with her and Theodore 
Barnum with me. 

Sunday. — Frankie Richardson asked me to 
go with her to teach a class in the colored 
Sunday School on Chapel Street this after- 
noon. I asked Grandmother if I could go 
and she said she never noticed that I was 
particularly interested in the colored race and 
she said she thought I only wanted an excuse 
to get out for a. walk Sunday afternoon. How- 
ever, ^she said I could go just this once. When 
we got up as far as the Academy, Mr Noah 



1860 188 

T. Clarke's brother, who is one of the teachers, 
€ame out and Frank said he led the singing 
at the Sunday School and she said she would 
give me an introduction to him» so he walked 
up with us and home again. Grandmother 
said that when she saw him opening the gate 
for me, she understood my zeal in missionary 
worki " The dear little lady," as we often call 
her, has always been noted for her keen dis- 
cernment and wonderful sagacity and ^ loses 
none of it as she advances in- years. Some 
one asked Anna the other day if her Grand- 
mother retained all her faculties and Anna 
said, *'yes, indeed, to an alarming degree." 
Grandmother knows that we think she is a 
perfect angel even if she does seem rather 
strict sometimes. Whether we are .7 or 
17 we are children to her just the same, 
and the Bible says, "Children obey your 
parents in the Lord for this is right" We 
are glad that we never will seem old to her. 
I had the same company home from church 
in the evening. His home is in Naples. 

Monday. — This morning the cook went to 
early mass and Anna told Grandmother she 
would bake the pancakes for breakfast if she 
would let her put on gloves. She would not 
let her, so Hannah baked the cakes. I was 
invited to Mary Paul's to supper to-night 
i^nd draiik the first cup of tea I ever drank 
in my life. I had a very nice time and 
Johnnie Paul came home with me. 

Imogen Power and I went down together 



1«4 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Friday afternoon to buy me a Meteorology. 
We are studying that and Watts on the Mind, 
instead of Philosophy. 

Tuesday. — I went with Fanny Gaylord to 
see Mrs Callister at the hotel to-night. She 
is so interested in all that we tell her, just 
like **one of the girls." 

I was laughing to-day when I came in from 
the street and Grandmother asked me what 
amused me so. I told her that I met Mr 
and Mrs Putnam on the street and she looked 
so immense and he so minute I couldn't help 
laughing at the contrast. Grandmother said 
that size was not everything, and then she 
quoted Cowper's verse : 

''Were I so tall to reach the skies or grasp the ocean in 

a span, 
" I must be measured by my soul, the mind is the stature 

of the man." 

I don't believe that helps Mr Putnam out. 

Friday. — We went to Monthly Concert of 
prayer for Foreign Missions this evening. I 
told Grandmother that I thought it was not 
very interesting. Judge Taylor read the 
Missionary Herald about the Madagascans 
and the Senegambians and the Terra del 
Fuejans and then Deacon Tyler prayed and 
they sang " From Greenland's Icy Mountains " 
and took up a collection and went home. She 
said she was afraid I did not listen attentively. 
I don't think I did strain every nerve. I 



1860 1S5 

believe Grandmother will give her last cent 
to Missions if the Boards get into worse 
straits than they are now. 

In Latin class to-day Anna translated the 
phrase Deo Volente *'with violence," and 
Mr Tyler, who always enjoys a joke, laughed 
so, we thought he would fall out of his oiair. 
He evidently thought it was the best one he 
had heard lately. 

November 21. — Aunt Ann gave me a sewing 
bird to screw on to the table to hold my work 
instead of pinning it to my knee. Grand- 
mother tells us wnen we sew or read not to 
get everything around us that we will want 
for the next two hours because it is not healthy 
to sit in one position so long. She wants us 
to get up and "stir around." Anna does not 
need this advice as much as I do for she is 
always on what Miss Achert calls the "qui 
vive." I am trying to make a sofa pillow out 
of little pieces of silk. Aunt Ann taught me 
how. You have to cut pieces of paper into 
octagonal shape and cover them with silk and 
then sew them together, over and over. They 
are beautiful, with bright colors^ when they 
are done. There was a hop at the hotel last 
night and some of the girls went and had an 
elegant time. Mr Hiram Metcalf came here 
thi^ morning to have Grandmother sign some 
papers. He always looks very dignified, and 
Anna and I call him "the deed man." We 
tried to hear what he said to Grandmother 
after she signed her name but we only heard 



196 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMEBICA 

something about " fear or compulsion " and 
Grandmother said "yes." It seems very 
mysterious. Grand fatner took us down street 
to-day to see the new Star Building. It was 
the Town House and he bought it and got 
Mr Warren Stoddard of Hopewell to super- 
intend cutting it in two and moving the parts 
separately to Coach Street. When it was 
completed ^ the shout went up from the crowd, 
" Hurrah for Thomas Beals, the preserver of 
the' old Court House." No one but Grand- 
father thought it could be done. 

December. — I went with the girls to the 
lake to skate this afternoon. Mr Johnson, 
the colored barber, is the best skater in town. 
He can skate forwards and backwards and 
cut all sorts of curlicues, although he is such 
a heavy man. He is going to Liberia and 
there his skates won't do him any good. I 
wish he would give them to me and also his 
skill to use them. Someone asked me to sit 
down after I got home and I said I preferred 
to stand, as I had been sitting down all the 
afternoon! Gus Coleman took a load of us 
sleighriding this evening. Of course he had 
Clara Willson sit on the front seat with him 
and help him drive. 

Thursday. — We had a special meeting of 
our society this evening at Mary Wheeler's 
and invited the gentlemen and had charades 
and general good time. Mr Gillette and 
Horace Finley made a great deal of fun for 



1860 187 

us. We initiated Mr Gillette into the Dbrcas 
Society, which consists in seating the candidate 
in a chair and propounding some very solemn 
questions and then in token of desire to join 
the society, you ask him to open his mouth 
very wide for a piece of cake which you 
swallow, yourself, instead! Very disappoint- 
ing to the new member! 

We went to a concert at the Seminary this 
evening. Miss MoUie Bull sang "Coming 
Through the Rye " and Miss Lizzie Bull siang 
"Annie Laurie** and "Auld Lang Syne.*' 
Jennie Lind, herself, could not have don^ 
better. 

Christmas. — We all went to Aunt Mary 
Carr*s to dinner excepting Grandmother, and 
in the evening we went to see some tableaux 
at Dr Cook's and Dr Chapin's at the asylum. 
We were very much pleased with the enter- 
tainment. Between the acts Mr del iPratt, 
one of the patients, said every time, "What 
next!" which made every one laugh. 

Grandfather was requested to add his picture 
to the gallery of portraits of eminent men for 
the Court Room, so he has had it painted. 
An artist by the name of Green, who lives 
in town, has finished it after numerous sittings 
and brought it up for our approval. We like 
it but we do not think it is as good lopking 
as he is. No one could really satisfy us 
probably, so we may as well try to be suited. 

I aslced Grandmother if Mr Clarke could 
take Sunday night supper with us and she 



188 VILLAGiE LIFE IN AMERICA 

said she was afraid he did not know the 
catechism. I asked him Friday night and 
he said he would learn it on Saturday so that 
* he could answer every third question any way. 
So he did and got along very well. I think 
he deserved a pretty good supper. 



X86i 

March 4, 1861. — President Lincoln was 
inaug urated \ to-day. 

March 5. — I read the inaugural address 
aloud to Grandfather this evening. He dwelt 
with such pathos upon the duty that all, both 
North and South, owe to the Union, it does 
not seem as though there could be war ! 

April. — We seem to have come to a sad, 
sad time. The Bible says, " A man's worst 
foes are those of his own household." The 
whole United States has been like one great 
household for many years. *' United we stand, 
divided we fall ! " has been our watchword, but. 
some who should have been its best friends 
have proven false and broken the bond. Men 
are taking sides, some for the North, some for 
the South. Hot words and fierce looks have 
followed, and there has been a storm in the air 
for a long time. 

April 15. — The storm has broken upon us. 
The Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, just off 
the coast of South Carolina, and forced her on 
April 14 to haul down the flag and surrender. 

139 



140 VILLAGE LIFE tS AMERICA 

President Lincoln has issued a call for 75,000 
men and many are volunteering to go all 
around us. How strange and awful it seems. 

May, 1 86 1. — Many of the young men are 
going from Canandaigua and all the neighbor- 
ing towns. It seems very patriotic and grand 
when they are singing, *' It is sweet, Oh, 'tis 
sweet, for one's country to die," and we hear 
the martial music and see the flags flying and 
see the recruiting tents on the square and meet 
men in uniform at every turn and see train 
loads of the boys in blue going to the front, 
. but it will not seem so grand if we hear they 
are dead on the battlefield, far from home. 
A lot of us girls went down to the train and 
took flowers to the soldiers as they were pass- 
ing through and they cut buttons from their 
coats and g^ve to us as souvenirs. We have 
flags on our paper and envelopes, and have all 
our stationery bordered with red, white and 
blue. We wear little flag pins for badges and 
tie our hair with red, white and blue ribbon and 
have pins and earrings made of thie buttons the 
soldiers gave us. We are going to spw for 
them in our society and get the garments all^ 
cut from the older ladies society. They work' 
every day in one of the rooms of the court 
house and cut put garments and make them 
and scrape lint and roll up bandages. They 
say they will provide us with all the garments 
we will make. We are going to write notes 
and enclose them in the garments to cheer up 
the soldier boys. It does not seem now as 



1861 141 

though I could give up any one who belonged 
to me. The gins in our society say that if any 
of the members do send a* soldier to the war 
they shall h^ve a flag bed quilt, made by the 
society, and have the girls' names on the 
stars* 

May 20. — I recited " Scott and the Veteran " 
to-day at school, and Mary Field recited, " To 
Drum Beat and Heart Beat a Soldier Marches 
By ; " Anna recited " The Virginia Mother." 
Everyone learns war poems now - a »- days. 
There was a patriotic rally in Bemis Hall last 
night and a quartette sang, **The Sword of a 
Bunker Hill " and '* Dixie " and " John Brown's 
Body lies a Mouldering in the Grave," and 
many other patriotic songs: We have one 
West Point cadet, Albert M. Murray, who is 
in the thick of the fight, and Charles S. Coy 
represents Canandaigua in the navy. 

June^ 1 86 1. — At the anniversary exercises, 
Revl Samuel M. Hopkins of Auburn gave the 
address. I have graduated from Ontario 
Female Seminary after a five years course and 
had the honor of receiving a diploma from the 
courtly hands of General John A. Granger. 
I am going to have it framed and handed down 
to my grandchildren as a memento, not exactly 
of sleepless nights and midnight vigils, but of 
rising betimes, at what Anna calls the crack of 
dawn. She likes that expression better than 
daybreak. I heard her reciting in the back 
chamber one morning about 4 o'clock and 



142 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

listened at the door. She was saying in the 
most nonchalknt manner : " Science and litera- 
ture in England were fast losing all traces of 
originality, invention was discouraged, research 
unvalued and the examination of nature pro- 
scribed. It seemed to be generally supposed 
that the treasure accumulated in the preced- 
ing ages was quite sufficient for all national 
purposes and that the only duty which authors 
nad to perform was to reproduce what had thus 
been accumulated, adorned with all the graces 
of polished style. Tameness and monotony 
naturally result from a slavish adherence to all 
arbitrary rules and every branch of literature 
felt this blighting influence. History, perhaps, 
was in some degree an exception, for Hume, 
Robertson and more especially Gibbon, ex- 
hibited a spirit of original investigation which 
found no parallel among their contemporaries." 
I looked in and asked her where her book was, 
and she said she left it down stairs. She has 
"got it" all right, I am sure. We helped 
decorate the seminary chapel for two days. 
Our motto was, " Still achieving, still pursuing." 
Miss Guernsey made most of the letters and 
Mr Chubbuck put them up and he hung all 
the paintings. It was a very warm week. 
General Granger had to use his palm leaf fan 
all the time, as well as the rest of us. There 
were six in our class, Mary Field, Lucy 
Petherick, Kate Lilly, Sarah Clay, Abby Scott 
and myself Abbie Clark would have been in 
the class, but she went to Pittsfield, Mass.; 
instead. General Granger said to each one 



1861 14S 

of us> ''It gives me great pleasure to present 
you with this diploma," and when he gave Miss 
Scott hers, as she is from Alabama, he said he 
wished it might be as a flag of truce between 
the North and the South, and thjs sentiment 
was loudly cheered. General Granger looked 
so handsome wit;h his black dress suit and 
ruffled shirt front and all the natural grace 
which belongs to him. The sheepskin has a 
picture of the Seminary on it and this inscrip- 
tion : "The Trustees and Faculty of the 
Ontario Female Seminary hereby certify that 
r. has completed the course of study pre- 
scribed in this Institution, maintained the 
requisite scholarship and commendable deport- 
ment and is therefore admitted to the graduating 
honors of this Institution. President of Board, 
John A. Granger; Benjamin F. Richards, 
Edward G. Tyler, Principals." Mr Morse 
wrote something for the paper : 

" To the Editor ol the Repository : 

" Dear Sir — ^June roses, eta, make our loveliest of 
villages a paradise this week. The constellations 
are all glorious and the stars of earth far outshine 
those of the heavens. The lake shore, ' Lovers' Lane,' 
' Glen Kitty ' and the ' Points ' are full of romance 
and romancers. The yellow moon and the blue 
waters and the darl^ green shores and the petri- 
fied , Indians, whispering stony words at the foot 
of Genundewah, and Squaw Island sitting on the 
waves, like an enchanted grove, and 'Whalesback' 
all humped up in the East and 'Devil's Lookout' 
rising over all, made the ' Sleeping Beauty ' a silver 
sea of witchery and love ; and in the! cottages and 



144 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

palaces we ate the ambrpsia and drank the nectar 
of the dweet goddesses of this new and golden 
age. 

*' I may as well say to you, Mr Editor, that 
the Ontario Female Seminary plosed yesterday 
and 'Yours truly' was present at commencement. 
Being a bachelor I shall plead guilty and appeal 
to the mercy of the Court, if indicted for undue 
prejudice in favor of the charming young orators. 
After the report of the Examining Committee, in 
which the scholarship of the young ladies was not 
too highly praised, came the Latin Salutatory by 
Miss Clay, a most beautiful and elegant production 
(that sentence, sir, applies ''to both salutatory and 
salutatorian). The 'Shadows We Cast,' by Miss 
Field, carried us far into the beautiful fields of 
nature and art and we saw the dark, or the brilliant 
shades, which our lives will cast, upon society and 
history. Then 'Tongues in Trees* began to whisper 
most bewitchingly, and 'Books in the Running 
Brooks * were opened, and ' Sermons in Stones ' were 
preached by Miss Richards, and this old bachelor 
thought if all trees would talk so well, and eyery 
brook would babble so musically, and each precious 
stone would exhort so brilliantly, as they were 
made to do by the 'enchantress,' angels and 
dreams would henceforth be of little consequence; 
and whether the orator should be called 'Tree 
of Beauty,* 'Minnehaha' or the 'Kohinoor' is a 
'vexata qpestio.' 

"In the evening Mr Hardick, 'our own,' who^ 
hand never touches the piano without making 
delicious music, and Misses Daggett and Wilson, 
also 'our own,' and the musical pupils of the 
Institution, gave a concert * The Young Volunteer' 
was imperatively demanded, and this for the third 
time during the anniversary exercises, and was sung 
amid thunders of applause, ' Star of the South,' Miss 
Stella Scott, shining, meanwhile in all her radiant 



1861 14i 

beauty. May her ; glorious light soon rest on a 
Union that shall never more be broken.— -Soberly 
yours, 

A Very Old Bach£ix>r." 

June, 1 86 1. — There was a patriotic rally this 
afternoon on the campus of Cananda^gua 
Academy and we Seminary gfirls went They 
raised a flag on the Academy building. 
General Granger presided, Dr Coleman led 
the choir and they sang " The Star Spangled 
Banner." Mr Noah T. Clarke made a stirring 
speech and Mr Gideon Granger, James C. 
Smith and E. M. Morse followed. Can- 
, andaigua has already raised over $7,cxx^ for 
the war. Capt. Barry drills the Academy 
beys in military tactics on the campus every 
day. Men are constantly enlisting, Lester 
P. Thompson, son of "Father Thompson," 
among the others. 

A young man asked Anna to take a drive 
to-day, but Grandmother was not willing at 
first to let her go. She finally gave her con- 
sent, after Anna's plea that he was so young 
and his horse was so gentle. Just as they 
were ready to start, I heard Anna run 
upstairs and I heard him say, "What an 
Anna!" I asked her afterwards what she 
went for and she said she remembered that 
she had left the soap in the water. 

.y»«^.-T-James writes that he has seen the 
Prince of Wale^ in New York. He was up 
on the roof of the Continental Fire Insurance 
building, out on the cornice, and looked down 

K 



146 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

on the procession. Afterwards there was a 
reception for the Prince at the University. Law 
School and James saw him close by. He says 
he has a very pleasant youthful face. There 
was a ball given for him one evening in the 
Academy of Music and there were 3,000 
present. The ladies who danced with him 
will never forget it. They say that he enters 
into every diversion which is offered to him 
with the greatest tact and good nature, and 
when he visited Mount Vernon he showed 
great reverence for the memory of George 
Washington. He attended a literary enter- 
tainment in Boston, where Longfellow, Holmes, 
Emerson, Thoreau, and other Americans of 
distinction were presented to him. He will 
always be a favourite in America. 

June. — Dr Daggets war sermon from the 
146th Psalm was wonderful. 

December i. — Dr Carr is dead. He had a 
stroke of paralysis two weeks ago and for several 
days he has been unconscious. The choir of 
our church, of which he was leader for so long, 
and sonie of the young people came and stood 
around his bed and sang, "Jesus, Lover of 
My Soul." They did not know whether he 
was conscious or not, but they thought so 
because the tears ran down his cheeks from 
his closed eyelids, though he could not speak 
or move. The funeral was from the church 
and Dr Daggett's text was, "The Beloved 
Physician." 



— -^ 



x862 

January 26. — We went to the Baptist 
Church this evening to hear Rev. A. H. Lung 
preach his last sermon before going into the 
army. 

February 17. — Glorious news from the war 
to-day. Fort Donelson is taken with 1,500 
rebels. The right and the North will surely 
triumph ! 

February 21. — Our society met at Fanny 
Palmer's wis afternoon. I went but did not 
stay to tea as we were going to Madame Anna 
Bishop's concert in the evening. The concert 
was very, very good. Her voice has great 
scope and she was dressed in the latest stage 
costume, but it took so much material for her 
skirt that there was hardly any left for the 
waist 

Washington s Birthday. — Patriotic services 
were held in the Congregational Church this 
morning. Madame Anna Bishop sang, and 
National songs were sung. Hon. James C. 
Smith read Wsishington's Farewell Address. 
In the afternoon a party of twenty-two, young 
and old, took a ride in the Seminary boat and 

147 



14^ VILLAGE LIFE IN ABOEUCA 

went to Mr Paton's on the lake shore road. 
We carried flags and made it a patriotic 
occasion. I sat next to Spencer F. Lincobi, 
a young man from Naples who is studyiiig 
law in Mr Henry Chesebro's office. I never 
met him before but he told mie he had made 
up his mind to go to the war. It is wonderful 
that young men who have brilliant prospects 
before them at home, will offer themselveis 
upon the altar of their country. I have some 
new patriotic stationery. There is a picture 
of the flag on the envelope and underneath, 
^' If any one attempts to haul down the 
American Flag shoot him on the spot — 
John A. Dix." 

Sunday, February 23. — Everybody came out 
to church this morning, expecting to hear 
Madame Anna Bishop sing. She was not 
there, and an "agent" made a "statement" 
The audience did not appear particularly 
edified. 

March 4. — John B. Gough lectured in Bemis 
Hall last night and was entertained by Governor 
Clark. I told Grandfather that I had an invita- 
tion to the lecture and he asked me who from. 
I told him from Mr Noah T. Clarke's brother. 
He did not make the least objection and I was 
awfully glad, because he has asked me to the 
whole course. Wendell Phillips and Hpristce 
Greeley, E. H, Chapin and John G. Saxe and 
Bayard Taylor are expected.* John B. Qough's 
lecture was fine. He can make an audience 



186S U9 

laugh as much by wagging his coattail^ as 
some men can by talking an hour. 

March 26. ^ — I have been up at Laura 
Chapin's from 10 o'clock in the morning u^til 
10 at night, finishing Jennie Howell's bed 
quilt» as she is to be married very soon. 
Almost all of the girls were there. We 
finished it at 8 p.m. and when we took it 
off the frames we gave three cheers. Some 
of the youth of the village came up to inspect 
our handiwork and see us home. Before we 
went Julia Phelps sang and played on the 
guitar and Captain Barry also sang and we 
all sang together, " O ! Columbia, the gem of 
the ocean, three cheers for the red, white 
and blue." 

June 19. — Our cousin, Ann Eliza Field, was 
married to-day to. George B. Bates at her 
home on Gibson Street. We went and had 
an elegant time. Charlie Wheeler made great 
fun and threw the final shower of rice as they 
drove away. 

June. — There was great excitement in 
prayer meeting last night, it seemed to Abbie 
Clark, Mary Field and me on the back seat 
where we alws^ys sit. Several people have 
asked us why .we sit away back there by 
old Mrs Kinney, but we tell them that she 
sits on the other side of the stOve from us 
and we like the seat, because we have occupied 
it so long, i presume we would see less and 



150 VILLAGE LIFE IN ABIERICA 

hear more if we sat in froiit To-night just 
after Mr Walter Hubbell had made one of his 
most beautiful prayers and Mr Cyrus Dixon 
was praying, a big June bug came zipping 
into the room and snapped against the wau 
and the lights and barely escaped several bald 
heads. Anna kept dodging around in a most 
startling manner and I expected every moment 
to ;5ee her walk out and take Emma Wheeler 
with her, for if she is afraid of anything more 
than dogs it is June bugs. At this crisis the 
bug flew out and a cat stealthily walked in. 
We knew that dear Mrs Taylor was always 
unpleasantly affected by the sight of cats and 
we didn't know what would happen if the cat 
should go near her. The cat very innocently 
ascended the steps to the desk and as Judge 
and Mrs Taylor always sit on the front seat, 
she couldn't help observing the ambitious 
animal as it started to assist Dr Dagget in 
conducting the meeting. The result was that 
Mrs Taylor just managed to reach the outside 
door before fainting away. We were glad 
when the benediction was pronounced. 

June. — Anna and I had a serenade last night 
from the Academy Glee Club, I think, as their 
voices sounded familiar. We were awakened 
by the music, about ii P.M., quite suddenly 
and I thought I would step across the hsdl 
to the front chamber for a match to light the 
candle. I was only half awake, however, and 
lost my bearings and stepped off the stairs 
and rolled or slid tp the bottom* The stairs 



186S 151 

are winding, so I must have performed two 
or three revolutions before 1 reached my 
destination. I jumped up and ran back and 
found Anna sitting up in bed, laughing. She 
asked me where I nad been and said if I 
had only told her where I was going she 
would have gone for tke. We decided not 
to strike a light, but just listen to the singing. 
Anna said she was glad that the leading tenor 
did not know how quickly I "tumbled" to the 
words of his song, *• O come my love and be 
my own, nor longer let me dwell alone," for 
she thought he would be too much flattered. 
Grandfather came into the hall and asked if 
any bones were broken and if he should send 
for a doctor. We told him we guessed not, 
we thought we would be all right in the 
morning. He thought it was Anna who fell 
down stairs, as he is never looking for such 
exploits in me. We girls received some verses 
from the Academy boys, written by Greig 
Mulligan, under the assumed name of Simon 
Snooks. The subject was, ''The Poor Un- 
fortunate Academy Boys." We have answered 
them and now I fear Mrs Grundy will see them 
and imagine something serious is going on. 
But she is mistaken and will find, at the end 
of the session, our hearts are still in our own 
possession. 

When we were down at Sucker Brook the 
other afternoon we were watching the water 
and one of the girls said, "How nice it would 
be if our lives could run along as smoothly 
as this stream." I said I thought it would 



15S VILLAGE tIFE IN AMERICA 

be too monotonous. Laura Chapin sakl she 
supposed I would rather have an '^eddy*' iii 
mine. 

We went to the examination at the Academy 
to-day and to the gymnasium exercises after- 
wards. Mr Noah T. Clarke's brother leads 
them and they do ^ome great feats with their 
rings and swings and weights and ladders. 
We girls can do a few in the bowling alley 
at the Seminary. 

June. — I visited Eureka Lawrence in 
Syracuse and we attended commencement at 
Hamilton College, Clintoh, and saw there, 
James Tunnicliff and Stewart Ellsworth of 
Penn Yan. I also saw Darius Sackett there 
among the students and also became acquainted 
with a very interesting young man from 
Syracuse, with the classic name of Horace 
Publius Virgilius Bogue. Both of these young 
men are studying for the ministry. I also saw 
Henry P. Cook, who used to be one of the 
Academy boys, and Morris Brown, of Penn 
Yan. They talk of leaving college and goinjg 
to the war and so does Darius Sackett. 

July, i862.----The President has called for 
300,000 more brave men to fill up the ranks 
of the fallen. We hear eyery day of more 
friends and acquaintances who have volunteered 
to go. 

August 20. — The 126th Regiment, jqst 
organized, was mustered into service at Camp 



1$62 IfiS 

Swift, Geneva. Those that I know who 
belong to it are Cplonel E. S. Sherrill 
Lieutenant Colonel James M* Bull, Captain 
Charles A. Richardson, Captaia Charles M. 
Wheeler, Captain Ten Eyck Muhson, Captain 
Orin G. Herendeen, Surgeon Dr Charles S. 
Hoyt, Hospital Steward Henry T. Antes, 
First Lieutenant Charies Gage, Second 
Lieutenant Spencer F. Lincoln, First Sergeant 
Morris Brown, Corporal Hollister N. Grimes, 
Privates^ Darius Sackett, Henry Willson, Oliver 
Castle, William Lamport. 

Dr Hoyt wrote home, *' God bless the dear 
ones we leave behind; and while you try to 
perform the duties you owe to each other, 
we will try to perform ours." 

We saw by the papers that the volunteers 
of the regiment before leaving camp at Geneva 
allotted over $15,000 of their monthly pay to 
their families and friends at home. One 
soldier , sent this telegi;am to his wife, as the 
regiment started for the front : " God bless 
you. Hail Columbia. Kiss the baby. Write 
soon." A volume jn ten words. 

AugTisi. — The New York State S. S. con- 
vention }s convened here and the meetings 
are most interesting. They were held in our 
church and lasted three days. A Mr Hart, 
from New York, led the singing and Mr Ralph 
Wells was Moderator. Mr Noah T. Clarke 
was in his element all through the meetings. 
Mr Pardee gave some fine blackboard exercises. 
During the last afternoon Mr Tousley was 



154 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

wheeled into the church, in his invalid chair, 
and said a few words, which thrilled every 
one. So much tenderness, mingled with his 
old time enthusiasm and love for the cause. 
It is the last time probably that his voice 
will ever be heard in public. They closed 
the grand meeting with the hymn beginning : 

'' Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love.'' 

In returning thanks to the people of Canan- 
daigua for their generous entertainment, Mr 
Halph Wells facetiously said that the cost of 
the convention must mean something to 
Canandaigua people, for the cook in one home 
was heard to say, "These religiouses do eat 
awful ! " 

September 1 3. — Darius Sackett was wounded 
by a musket shot in the leg, at Maryland 
Heights, Va., and in consequence is discharged 
from the service. 

September. — Edgar A. Griswold of Naples 
is recruiting a company here for the 148th 
Regiment, of which he is captain. Hiram 
P. Brown, Henry S. Murray and Charles H. 
Paddock are officers in the company. Dr 
Elnathan W. Simmons is surgeon. 

September 22. — I read aloud to Grandfather 
this evening the Emancipation Proclamation 
issued as a war measure by President Lincoln, 
to take eiBfect January i, liberating over three 



186S 166 

million slaves. He recommends to all thus set 
free, to labor faithfully for reasonable wages 
and to abstain from all violence, unless in 
necessary self-defense, and he invokes upon 
this act " the considerate judgment of mankind 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

November 21. — This is my twentieth birth- 
day. Anna wanted to write a poem for the 
occasion and this morning she handed me 
what she called "An effort." She said she 
wrestled with it all night long and could not 
sleep and this was the result: 

'' One hundred years from now, Caxrie, dear. 
In all probability you'll not be here ; 
But we'll all be in the same boat, too. 
And therell be no one left 
To say boo hoo ! " 

Grandfather gave me for a present a set 
of books called ''Irving's Catechisms on 
Ancient Greeks and Romans." They are 
four little books bound in leather, which were 
presented to our mother for a prize. It is 
thus inscribed on the front page, ''Miss 
Elizabeth Beals at a public examination of 
the Female Boarding School in East Bloom- 
field, October 15, 1825, was judged to excel 
the school in Reading. In testimony of which 
she receives this Premium from her affectionate 
instructress, S. Adams.'' 

I cannot imagine Grandmother sending us 
away to boarding school, but I suppose she 
had so many children then, she could spare 



156 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

one or two as well as tiot. She says they 
sent Aunt Ann to Miss Willard's school at 
Troy. I received a birthday letter from Mrs 
Beaumont to-day. She wants to know how 
everything goes at the Seminaiy and if Anna 
still occupies the front seat in the school room 
most of the time. She says she sttpposes she 
is quite a sedate young lady now but she 
hopes there is a whole lot of the old Anna 
left. I think there is. 

December. — Hon. William H. Lamport went 
down to Virginia to see his son and found 
that he had just died in the hospital from 
measles and pneumonia. Their only son, 
only eighteen years old! 



z863 

January.— GrdLTidmother went to Aurjt Mary 
Carr's to tea tOriiight, very much to our 
surprise, for she seldom goes anywhere. Anna 
said she was going to keep house exactly as 
Grandmother did, so after supper she took a 
little hot water in a basin on a tray and got 
the tea-towels and washed the silver and best 
china but she let the ivory handles on the 
knives and forks get wet, so I presume they 
will all turn black. Grandmother never lets 
her little nice things go out into the kitchen, 
so probably that is the reason that everything 
is forty years bid and yet as good as new. 
She let us have the Young Ladies' Aid Society 
here to supper because I am President. She 
came into the parlor and looked at our basket 
of work, which the older ladies cut out for 
as to make for the soldiers. She had the 
supper table set the whole length of the 
dining room and let us preside at the table. 
Anna made the .£irl$ laugh so, they could 
hardly eat, althou^ they said eveiy thing was 
splendid. They said they never ate better 
biscuit, preserves, or fruit cake and the coffee 
was delicious. After it was over, the "dear 
little lady'*^ sai4 she hpped w^ had a good 

15,7 



168 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

time. After the g^irls were gone Grandmother 
wanted to look over the garments and see 
how much we had accomplished and if we 
had made them well. Mary Field made a 
pair of drawers with No. 90 thread She 
said she wanted them to look fine and I am 
sure they did. Most of us wrote notes and 
put inside the garments for the soldiers in 
the hospitals. 

Sarah Gibson Howell has had an answer 
to her letter. His name is Foster — a Major. 
She expects him to come and see her soon. 

AH the girls wear newspaper bustles to 
school now and Anna's rattled to-day and 
Emma Wheeler heard it and said, "What's 
the news, Anna?" They both laughed out 
loud and found that ''the latest news from 
the front" was that Miss Morse kept them 
both after school and they had to copy 
Dictionary for an hour. War prices are 
terrible. I paid $3.50 to-day for a hoop 
skirt. 

February. — The members of our society 
sympathized with General McClellan when 
he was criticised by some and we wrote him 
the following letter: 

''Canandaigua, ^4;^. 13, 1^3. 

"Maj. Gen. Geo. McClellan : 

" Will you pardon any seeming impropriety in our 
addressing you, and attribute it to the impulsive 
love and admiration of hearts which see in you, the 
bravest and noblest defender of our Union. We 



180S 159 

cannot resist the impulse to tell you, be our words 
ever so feeble, bow our love and trust bave followed 
you from Rich Mountain to Antietam; tbrougb all 
slanderous attacks of traitorous politicians and 
fanatical defamers — how we bave admired/ not less 
thai! your calm courage on the battlefield, your lofty 
scorn of those who remained at home in the base 
endeavor to strip from your brow the hard earned 
laurels placed there by a grateful country : to tell 
further^ that in your forced retirement from battle- 
fields of the Republic's peril, you have * but changed 
your country's arms for more, — your country's 
heart,' — and to assure you that so long as our 
country remains to us a sacred name and our flag 
a holy emblem, so long shall we cherish your memory 
as the defender and protector of both. We are an 
association whose object it is to aid, in the only way 
in which woman, alas! can aid our brothers in the 
field. Our sympathies are with them in the cause 
for which they have perilled all — our hearts are 
with them in the prayer, that ere long their beloved 
commander may be restored to them, and that once 
more as of old he may lead them to victory in the 
sacred name of the Union and Constitution. 

''With united prayers that the Father of all may 
have you and yours e^ver in His holy keeping, we 
remain yotir. devoted partisans." 

Sign^ by a large number. 

The following in reply was addressed to 
the lady whose name was first signed to the 
above : 

" Nbw Youc, Fa. 21, 1863. 

'' Madam — I take great pleasure in acknowledging 
the receipt of the very kind letter of the 13th inst, 
from yourself and your friends. Will yoii do me 
the favor to 9ay to them how much I . thank them 



J 

1 



180 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

for it, and that I am at a loss to express my gratitude 
for the pleasant and cheering terms in wluck it is 
couched. Such sentiments on the pSLtt of those whdse 
brothers have served with me in the field are more 
grateful to me than anything else ban be. I feel 
far more than rewarded by them for all I have tried 
to accomplish. — I am, Madam, with the most sincere 
respect and friendship, yours very truly, 

"ijEO. B. McClellan." 

May. — A number of the teachers and pvtpils 
of the Academy have enlisted for the war. 
Among them E. C. Clarke, H. C. Kirk, 
A. T. Wilder, Norman K. Martin, T. C. 
Parkhurst, Mr Gates. They have a tent on 
the square and are enlisting men in Canandaigua 
and vicinity for the 4th N. Y. Heavy Artillery. 
I received a letter from Mr Noah T. Clarke's 
mother in Naples. She had already sent 
three sons, Bela, William and Joseph, to the 
war and she is very sad because her youngest 
has now enlisted. She says she feels es did 
Jacob of old when he said, " I am bereaved 
of my children. Joseph is not and Simeon 
is not and now vou will take Benjamin away.*' 
I have heard that she is a beautiful singer 
but she says she cannot sing any more until 
this cruel war is over. I wish that I could 
write something to comfort her but I feel as 
Mrs Browning puts it: "If you want a 
song for your Italy free, let none look at 



me." 



Our society met at Fannie Pierce's this after- 
noon. Her mother is an invalid and never 
gets out at all, but she is very much interested 



1868 161 

in the soldiers and in all young people, ajid 
' Ipves to have us come in and see her and we 
love to go. She enters into the plans of all 
of us young girls and has a personal interest 
in us. We had a very good time to - night 
and Laura Chapin was more full of fun than 
usual. Once there was silence for a minute 
or two and some one said, ''awful pause." 
Laura said, ''I guess you would have awful 
paws if you worked as hard as I do." We 
were talking about how many of us girls would 
be entitled to flag bed quilts, and according 
to the rules, they said that, up to date, Abbie 
Clark and I were the only ones^ The explana- 
tion is that Captain George N. Williams and 
Lieutenant E. C. Clarke, are enlisted in their 
country's service. Susie Daggett is Secretary 
and Treasurer of the Society and she reported 
that in one year's time we made in our society 
133 pairs of drawers, loi shirts, 4 pairs socks 
for soldiers, and 54 garments for the families 
of soldiers. 

Abbie Clark and I had our ambrotypes 
taken to-day for two young braves who are 
going to the war. William H. Adams is also 
commissioned Captain and is going to the 
front. 

July 4. — The terrible battle of Gettysburg 
brings to Canandaigua sad news of our soldier 
boys of the 126th Regiment. Colonel Sherrill 
was instantly killed, . also Captains Wheeler 
and Herendeen, Henry Willson and Henry 
P. Cook. Captain Richardson was wounded. 



162 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

July 26. — Charlie Wheeler was buried with 
military honors from the Congregational church 
to-day. Two companies of the 54th New 
York State National Guard attended the 
funeral, and the church was packed, galleries 
and all. It was the saddest funeral and the 
only one of a soldief that I ever attended. 
I hope it will be the last. He was killed at 
Gettysburg, July 3, by a sharpshooters bullet. 
He was a very bright young man, graduate of 
Yale college and was practicing law. He was 
captain of Company K, 126th N. Y. Volunteers. 
I have copied an extract from Mr Morse's 
lecture, "You and I :" "And who has for- 
gotten that gifted youth, who fell on the 
memorable field of Gettysburg .'^ To win a 
noble name, to save a beloved country, he 
took his place beneath the dear old flag, and 
while cannon thundered and sabers clashed 
and the stars of the old Union shone above 
his head he went down in the shock of battle 
and left us desolate, a name to love and a 
glory to endure. And as we solemnly know, 
as by the old charter of liberty we most 
sacredly swear, he was truly and faithfully and 
religiously 

Of all our friends the noblest. 
The choicest and the purest, 
The nearest and the dearest. 

In the field at Gettysburg. 
Of all jthe heroes bravest, 
Of soul the brightest, whitest, 
Of all the warriors greatest, 

Shot dead at Gettysburg. 



1868 168 

And where the fight was thickest, 
And where the smoke was blackest, 
And where the fire was hottest. 

On the fields of Gettysburg, 
There flashed his steel the brightest, 
There blazed his eyes the fiercest, 
There flowed his blood the reddest 

On the field of Gettysburg. 

O wailing winds of heaven ! 
O weeping dew of evening ! 
O music of the waters 

That flow, at Gettysburg, 
Mourn tenderly the hero, 
The rare and glorious hero, 
The loved and peerless hero, 

^N^o died at Gettysburg. 

Hb turf shall be the greenest. 
His roses bloom the sweetest, 
His willow droop the saddest 

Of all at Gettysburg. 
His memory live the freshest, 
His fame be cherished longest. 
Of all' the holy warriors, 

Who fell at Gettysburg. 

These were patriots, these were our jewels. 
When shall we see their like again ? And of 
every soldier who has fallen in this war his 
friends may write just as lovingly as you and 
I may do of those to whom I pay my feeble 
tribute." 

August, 1863. — The U. S. Sanitary Com- 
mission has been organised. Canandaigua 
sent Dr W. Fitch Cheney to Gettysbqrg with 
supplies for the sick ^d wounded and he took 
seven assistants with him. Home bounty was 



1«4 VILLAGE UFB IN AMERICA 

brought to the tents and put into th;s hands of 
the wounded soldiers. A blessed work. 

August 1 2.--^Lucilla Field was married in 
our church to-day to Rev. S. W. Pratt. I 
always thought she was cut out for a minister's 
wife. Jennie Draper cried herself sick because 
Lucilla, her Sunday School teacher, is going 
away. 

October 8. — News came to-day of the death 
of Lieutenant Hiram Brown. He died of 
fever at Portsmouth, only little more than a 
year after he went away. 

November i. — The 4th New York Heavy 
Artillery is stationed at Fort Hamilton, N. Y. 
harbour. Uncle Edward has invited me down 
to New York to spend a month! Very oppor- 
tune! Grandfather says that I can go and 
Miss Rosewame is beginning a new dress for 
me to-day. 

November 6. — We were saddened to-day by 
news of the death of Augustus Torrey Wilder 
in the hospital at Fort Ethan Allen. 

November g. — No. 6^ E. 19th Street, New 
York City. Grandfather and I came from> 
Canandaigua yesterday. He is at Gramercy 
Park Hotel. We were met by a military 
escort of "one" at Albany apd consequently 
came through mpre safely, I suppose. James 
met us at 42d Street Grand Central Station. 
He lives at Uncle Edward's ; attends to all df 



1868 165 

his legal business and is his confidential clerk. 
I like it very much here. They are very 
stylish and grand but I don't mind that. Aunt 
Emily is reserved and dignified but very kind. 
People do not pour their tea or coffee into 
their Saucers any more to cool it, but drink it 
from the cup, and you must mind and not 
leave your teaspoon in your cup. I notice 
everything and am very particular. Mr Morris 
K. Jessup lives right across the street and I 
see him every day, as he is a friend of Uncle 
Edward. Grandfather has gone back home 
ana left me in charge of friends " a la militaire " 
and others. ^ 

November 15. — "We" went out to Fo/t 
Hamilton to-day and are going to Blackwell's 
Island to-morrow and to many other places of 
interest down the Bay. Soldiers are every- 
where and I feel quite important, walking 
around in company with blue coat and brass 
buttons — very becoming style of dress for men 
and the military salute at every turn is what 
one reads about. 

Sunday. — Went to Broadway Tabernacle to 
church to-day and heard Rev. Joseph P. 
Thompson preach. Abbie Clark is visiting 
her sister, Mrs Fred Thompson, and sat a 
few seats ahead of us in church. She tyrned 
around and saw us. We also saw Henrietta 
Francis Talcott, who was a '* Seminary girl." 
She wants me to come to see her in her New 
York home. 



106 VILLAGE LIFE JN AMERICA 

November 1 9, — ^We wish we were at Gettys- 
burg to-day to hear President Lincoln's and 
Edward Everett's addresses at the dedication 
of the National Cemetery. We will read them 
in to-morrow's papers, but it will not be like 
hearing them. — Author^ s Note^ 191 1. 

Forty -eight years have elapsed isince 
Lincoln's speech was delivered at the dedica- 
tion of the Soldier's Cemetery at Gettysburg. 
So eloquent and remarkable was his utterance 
that I believe I am correct in stating that every 
word spoken has. now been translated into all 
known languages and is regarded as one of 
the World Classics. The same may be said of 
Lincoln's letter to the mother of five sons lost 
in battle. I make no apology for inserting in 
this place both the speech and the letter. Mr 
Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassador to 
Great Britain, in an address on Lincoln 
delivered at the University of Birmingham in 
December, 1910, remarked in reference to this 
letter, "What classic author in our common 
English tongue has surpassed that ? " and next 
may I ask, " What English or American orator 
has on a similar occasion surpassed this address 
on the battlefield of Gettysburg ? " 

" Four score and seven years ago, our fathers 
brought forth on this continent a new nation 
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition 
that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged 
in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or 
any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that 
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that 



1868 167 

field as a final resting place for those who gave their 
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether 
fitting and proper that we should d6 this. But in a 
larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot 
consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The 
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have 
consecrated it far above our poor power to add or 
detract The world will little note, nor long 
remember, what we say here — ^but it can never forget 
what th^ did here. It is for us, the living, rather, 
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to 
the great task remaining before us — that from these 
honoured dead we take increased devotion to that 
cause for which they gave the last full measure of 
devotion — that we here highly resolve, that these 
dead shall not have died in vain — ^that this nation 
under God shall have a new birth of freedom — and 
that government of the people, by the people and for 
the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

It was during the dark days of the war that 
he wrote this simple letter of sympathy to a 
bereaved mother: — 

" I have been shown, in the files of the War 
Department, a statement that you are the mother of 
five sons who have died gloriously on the field of 
battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any 
words of mine which should attempt to beguile you 
from your grief for a loss so overwhelming, but I 
cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation 
which may be found in the thanks of the Republic 
they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father 
may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and 
lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have 
laid so. costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom." 



168 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 



Nautmber 21.*— Abbie Clark and her oousia 
Cora came to call and invited me and her 
soldier cousin to come to dinner to-night, at 
Mrs Thompson's. He will be here this after- 
noon and. I will give him the invitation. 
James is asked for the evening. 

November 22. — ^We had a delightful visit 
Mr Thompson took us up into his den and 
showed us curios from all over the world and 
as many pictures as we would find in an art 
gallery. 

Friday. — Last evening Uncle Edward took 
a party of us, including Abbie Clark, to 
WsJlack's Theater to see "Rosedale," which 
is having a great run. I enjoyed it and told 
James it was the best play I ever ''heard." 
He said I must not say that I '* heard " a play. 
I ''saw" it I stand corrected. 

I told James that I heard of a young girl 
whp went abroad and on her return someone 
asked her if she saw King Lear and she said, 
no, he was sick all the time she was there ! I 
just loved the play last night and la,ughed and 
cried in turn, it seemed so real. I don't know 
what Grandmother will say, but I wrot^ her 
about it and said, "When you are with the 
Romans, you must do as the Romans do." I 
presume she will say " that is not the way you 
were brought up." 

December 7. — The 4th New York Heavy 
Artillery has orders to move to Fort Ethan 



/ 



1868 169 

AUen, near Washington, and I have orders to 
return to Canand^igua. I have enjoyed the 
five weeks very much and as " the soldier *' 
was on parole most of the time I have seen 
much of interest in the city. Uncle Edward 
says that he has lived here forty years but has 
never visited some of the places that we have 
seen, so he told me when I mentioned climbing 
to the top of Trinity steeple. 

Canandaigua, December 8. — Home again. 
I had military attendance as far as Paterson, 
N. J.» and came the rest of the way with 
strangers. Not caring to talk I liked it just 
as well. When I said good bye I could not 
help wondering whether it was for years, or 
forever. This cruel war is terrible and precious 
lives are being sacrificed and hearts broken 
every day. What is to be the result? We 
can only trust and wait. 

Christmas Eve ^ 1863. — Sarah Gibson Howell 
was married to Major Foster this evening. 
She invited all the society and many others. 
It was a beautiful wedding and we all enjoyed 
it. Some time ago I asked her to write in my 
album and she sewed a lock of her black curling 
hair on the page and in the center of it wrote, 
" Forget not Gippie." 

December 3 1 . — Our brother John was married 
in Boston to-day to Laura Arnold, a lovely girl. 



x864 

April I. — Grandfather had decided to go to 
New York to attend the fair given by the 
Sanitary Conjmission, and he is taking two 
immense books, which are more than one 
hundred years old, to present to the Com- 
mission, for the benefit of the war fund. 

April 1 8. — Grandfather returned home to- 
day, unexpectedly to us. I knew he was sick 
when I met him at the door. He had traveled 
all night alone from New York, although he 
said that a stranger, a fellow passenger, from 
Ann Arbor, Mich., on the train noticed that 
he was suffering and was very kind to him. 
He said he fell in his room at Gramercy Park 
Hotel, in the night, and his knee was very 
painful. We sent for old Dr Cheney and he 
said the hurt was a serious one and needed 
most careful attention. I was invited to a 
spelling school at Abbie Clark's in the evening 
and Grandmother said that she and Anna 
would take care of Grandfather till I got back, 
and theii I could sit up by him the rest of the 
night. We spelled down and had quite a 
merry time. Major C. S. Aldrich had escaped 
from prison and was there. He came home 
with me, as my soldier is down in Virginia. 

170 



1864 171 

« 

April 19. — Grandfather is much worse. He 

was delirious all night. We have sent for Dr 

Rosewame in counsel and Mrs Lightfoote has 

9jCome to stay with us all the time and we have 

sent for Aunt Glorianna. 

April 20. — Grandfather dictated a letter 
to-night to a friend of his in New York. After 
I had finished he asked me if I had mended 
his gloves. I said no, but I would have them 
ready when he wanted them. Dear Grand- 
father! he looks so sick I fear he will never 
wear his gloves again. 

May 16. — I have not written in my diary for 
a month and it has been the saddest month of 
my life. Dear, dear Grandfather is dead. He 
was buried May 2, just two weeks from the 
day that he returned from New York. We 
did everything for him that could be done, but 
at the end of the first week the doctors saw 
that he was beyond all human aid. Uncle 
Thomas told the doctors that they must tell 
him. He was much surprised but received the 
verdict calmly. He said "he had no notes out 
and perhaps it was the best time to go." He 
had taught us how to live and he seemed 
determined to show us how a Christian should 
die. He said he wanted "grandmother and 
the children to come to him and have all the 
rest remain outside." When we came into the 
ropm he said to grandmother, " Dp you know 
what the doctors say ? " She bowed her head, 
and then he motioned for her to come on one 



17f VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 



and Anna and me on tbe other and kneel 
lyy his bedside. He placed a hand upon us 
and upon her and said to her, "All the rest 
seem very much excited, but you and I must 
be compo^sed/' Then he ask^ us to say the 
23d Psalm, " The Lord is my Shepherd," and 
then all of us said the Lord's Prayer together 
after Grandmother had offered a little prayer 
for grace and strength in this trying hour. 
Then he said, '* Grandmother, you must take 
care of the g^rls, and, g^rls, you must take care 
of Grandmother." We felt as though out 
hearts would break and were sure we never 
could be happy again. During the next few 
days he often spoke of dying and of what we 
must do when he was gone. Once when I 
was sitting by him he looked up and smiled 
and said, " You will lose all your roses watch- 
ing over me." A good many business men 
came in to see him to receive his parting 
blessing. The two McKechnie brothers, 
Alexander and James, came in together on 
their way home from church the Sunday before 
he died. Dr Daggett came very often. Mr 
Alexander Howell and Mrs Worthington 
came, too. 

He lived until Saturday, the 30th, and in 
the morning he said, "Open the door wide." 
We did so and he said, "Let the King of 
Glory enter in." Very soon after he said, 
" I am going home to Paradise," and then 
sank into that sleep which on this earth kiiows 
no waking. I sat by the window near his 
bed and watched the rain beat into the grass 



1864 178 

and saw the peonies and crocuses and daffodils 
beginning to come up out of the ground and 
I thought to myself, I shall never see the 
flowers come up again without thinking of 
these sad, sad days. He was buried Monday 
afternoon, May 2, from the Congregationsil 
church, and Dr Daggett preached a sermon 
from a favorite text of Grandfather'^, *' I shall 
die in my nest." James and John came 
and as we stood with dear Grandmother 
and all the others around his open g^ave 
and heard Dr Daggett say in his beautiful 
sympathetic voice, " Earth to earth, ashes 
to ashes, dust to dust," we felt that we 
were losing our best friend; but he told us 
that we must live for Grandmother and so 
we will. 

The next Sabbath, Anna and I were called 
out of church by a messenger, who said that 
Grandmother was taken suddenly ill and was 
dying. When we reached the house attendants 
were all about her administering restoratives, 
but told us she wais rapidly sinking. I asked 
if I might speak to her and Ivas reluctantly 
permitted, as they thought best not to disturb 
her. I sat down by her and with tearful 
voice said, "Grandmother, don't you know 
that Grandfather said we were to care for you 
and you were to care for us and if you die 
we cannot do as Grandfather said.^" She 
opened her eyes and looked at me and said 
quietly, ** Dry your eyes, child, I shall not 
die to^d^y or to-morrow." She seems well 
now. 



174 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Inscribed in tny diary : 

''They are passing away, they are passing away* 
Not only the young» bat the aged and grey. 
Their places are vacant, no longer we see 
The arm chair in waiting, as it used to be. 
The hat and the coat are removed from the nail. 
Where for years they have hung, every day without faiL 
The shoes and the slippers are needed no more. 
Nor kept ready waiting, as they were of yore^ 
The desk which he stood at in manhood's fresh prime, ' 
Which now shows the marks of the finger of time. 
The bright well worn keys, which were childhood's delight 
Unlocking the treasures kept hidden from sight 
These now are mementoes of him who has passed. 
Who stands there no longer, as we saw him last. 
Other hands turn the keys, as he did, before, 
Other eyes will his secrets, if any, explore. 
The step once elastic, but feeble of late. 
No longer we watch for through door way or gate. 
Though often we turn, half expecting to see. 
The loved one approaching, but ah ! 'tis not he. 
We miss him at aU times, at mom when we ipeet, 
For the social repast, there is one vacant seat 
At noon, and at night, at the hour of prayer. 
Our hearts fill with sadness,, one voice is riot there. 
Yet not without hope his departure we mourn, 
In faith and in trust, all our sorrows are borne. 
Borne iupward to Him who in kindness and love 
Sends earthly afflictions to draw us above. 
Thus hoping and trusting, rejoicing, well go, 
Both upward and onward, through weal and through woe 
'Till all of life's changes and conflicts are past 
Beyond the dark river, to meet him at last." 

3n flDemoriam 

Thomas Beals died in Canandaigua, N. Y. 
on Saturday, April 30th, 1864, ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ 
year of his age* Mr Beals was bom in Boston, 
Mass., November 13, 1783. 



1864 ITS 

He came to this village in October, 1803, 
only 14 years after the first settlement of the 
place. He was married in March, 1805, to 
Abigail Field, sister of the first pastor of the 
Congp-egational church here. Her family, in 
several of its branches, have since been distin- 
guished in the ministry, the legal profession, 
and in commercial enterprise. 

Living to a good old age, and well known 
as one of our most wealthy and respected 
citizens, Mr Beals is another added to the 
many ex^^mples of successful men who, by 
energy and industry, have made their own 
fortune. 

On coming to this village, he was teacher 
in the Academy for a time> and afterward 
entered into mercantile business, in which he 
had his share of vicissitude. When the Ontario 
Savings Bank was established, 1832, he became 
the Treasurer, and managed it successfully till 
the institution ceased, in 1835, with his with- 
drawal. In the meantime he conducted^ also, 
a banking business of his own, and this was 
continued until a week previous to his death, 
when he formally withdrew, though for the 
last five years devolving its more active duties 
upon his son. 

As a banker, his sagacity and fidelity won 
for him the confidence and respect of all classes 
of persons in this community. The business 
portion of our village is very much indebted 
to his enterprise for the eligible structures he 
built that nave more than made good the 
lojsses sustained by fires. More uian fifty 



176 VILIlAGE UFB IN AMERICA 

years ago he was actively concerned in the 
building of the Congregational church, and 
also superintended the erection of the county 
jail and almshouse ; for many years a trustee 
of Canandaigua Academy, and trustee and 
treasurer of the Congregational church. At 
the time of his death he and his wife, who 
survives him, were the oldest members of the 
church, having united with it in 1807, only 
eight years after its organisation. Until 
hindered by the infirmities of age, he was 
a constant attendant of its services and ever 
devoudy maintained the worship of God in his 
family. No person has been more generally 
known among all classes of our citizens. 
Whether at home or abroad he could not fail 
to be remarked for his gravity and dignity. 
His character was original, independent, and 
his manners remarkable for a dignuied courtesy. 
Our citizens were familiar with his brief, 
emphatic answers with the wave of his hand. 
He was fond of books, a great reader, col- 
lected a valuable number of volumes, and was 
happy in the use of language both in writing 
and conversation. In many unusual ways he 
often showed his kind consideration for iht 
poor and afflicted, and many persons hearing 
of his death gratefully recollect instances, hot 
known to others, of his seasonable kindness 
to them in trouble. In his charities he often 
studied concealment as carefully as others court 
display. His marked individuality of cbarr 
acter and deportment, together with his shrewd 
discernment and active habits, could not fail 



1864 irr 

to /leave a distinct impression on the minds 
of all. 

For more than sixty years he transacted 
business in one place here, and his long life 
thus teaches more than one generation the 
value of sobriety, diligence, fidelity and use- 
fulness. 

In his last illness he reniarked tp a friend 
that he always loved Canandaig^a ; had done 
several things for its prosperity, and had 
intended to do more. He had known his 
measure of affliction ; Only four of eleven 
children survive him, but children and children's 
children ministered to the comfort of his last 
days. Notwithstanding his years and infirmi- 
ties, he was able to visit New York, returning 
April 1 8th quite unwell, but not immediately 
expecting a fatal termination. As the final 
event drew near, lie seemed happily prepared 
to meet it. He conversed freely with his 
friends and neighbors in a softened and 
benignant spirit, at once receiviiig and impart- 
ing benedictions. His end seemed to reialise 
his favorite citation from Job: ''I shall die 
in my nest." 

His funeral was attended on Monday in the 
Congregational church by a, large assembly, 
Dr Daggett, the paistor, officiating on the 
occasion — Written by Dr O. E. Daggett 
in 1864. 

Mc^. — The 4th New York Heavy Artillery is 
having hard times in the Virginia mud and rain. 
They are near Culpepper. It is such a change 

M 



178 VILLAGE LIFE W AMERICA 

from their snug winter quarters at Fort Ethan 
Allen, There are 2,800 men in the Regiment 
and 1,206 are isick. Dr Charles S. Hoyt of the 
126th, which is camping dose by, has come to 
the help of these new recruits so kindly as to 
win every heart, quite in contrast to the heart- 
lessness of their own surgeons. They will 
always love hini for this. It is just like 
him. 

/une 22. — Captain Morris Brown, of Penn 
Yan, was killed to-day by a musket shot in the 
head, while commanding the regiment before 
Petersburg. 

/une 23, 1864. — Anna graduated last 
Thursday, June 16, and was valedictorian 
of her class. There were eleven girls in 
the class, Ritie Tyler, Mary Antes, Jennie 
Robinson, Hattie Paddock, Lillie Masters, 
Abbie Hills, Miss McNair, Miss Pardee suid 
Miss Palmer, Miss Jasper and Anna. The 
subject of her essay was "The Last Time." 
I will copy an account of the exercises as 
they appeared in this week s village paper. 
Every one thinks it was written by Mr E. 
M. Morse. 

• A Word From An Old Man 

" Mr Editor : 

^' Less than a century ago I was traveling thrpugh 
this endianted region and accidehtatly heard that 
it was coitimencemeht week at the seminary. ;'I 
went My -venerable appearance 'seemed to com- 



1864 179 

• 

mand respect and I received many scttentions. I 
presented my snowy head and patriarchal beard at 
the doors of the sacred institution and was admitted. 
I heard all the classes, primary, secondary, tertiary, 
et cetera. All went merry as a marriage bell. 
Thursday was the great day. I made vast prepara- 
tion. I rose early, dressed with much care. I 
afTectionately pressed the hands of my two land- 
lords and left When I arrived at the seminary I 
saw at a glance that it was a place where true merit 
was appreciated. I was invited to a seat among the 
dignitaries, but declined. I am a modest man, I 
always was. I recognized the benign Principals 
of the school. You can find no better principles in 
the states than in Ontario Female Seminary. After 
the report of the committee a very lovely young lady 
arose and saluted us in Latin. I looked very wise, I 
always do. So did everybody. We all understood 
it. As she proceeded, I thought the grand old 
Roman tongue had never sounded so musically and 
when she pronounced the decree, *' Richmond dUenda 
est," we all hoped it might be prophetic. Then 
followed the essays of the other young ladies and 
then every one waited anxiously for "The L^t 
Time.'' At last it came. The story was beautifully 
tQld, the adieux were tenderly spoken. We saw the 
withered flowers of early years scattered along the 
academic ways, and the golden fruit of scholarly culture 
ripening in the gardens of the future. Enchanted by 
the sorrowful eloquence, bewildered by the melancholy 
brilliancy, I sent a rosebud to the charming valedic- 
torian and wandered out into the grounds. I went 
to the concert in the evening and was pleased and 
delighted. So was everybody. I shall return next 
year unless the gout carries me off. I hope I 
shall hear just such beautiful music, see just such 
beautiful faces and dine at the earner excel 
hotel. 



^ « * 4 I * .> 



• M 



180 VILLAGE UFE IN AMERICA 

Anna closed her valedictory with these 
words : 

" May we meet at oile gate when all's over ; 
The ways they^are many and wide, 
And seldom are two ways the same ; 

Side by side may we stand 
At the same little door when all's done. 
The ways they are many, 
The end it is one." 

July lo. — We have had word of the death 
of Spencer F. Lincoln. One more brave 
soldier sacrificed. 

August.— rllht New York State S. S. Con- 
vention was held in Buffalo and among others 
Fanny Gaylord, Mary Field and myself 
attended. We had a fine time and were 
entertained at the home of Mr and Mrs 
Sexton. Her mother is living with her, a 
dear old lady who was Judge At water's 
daughter and used to go to school to Grand- 
father Beals. We went with other delegates 
on an excursion to Niagara Falls and went 
into the express office at the R. R. station 
to see Grant Schley, who is express agent there. 
He said it seemed good to see so many home 
faces. 

September i. — My war letters come from 
Georgetown Hospital now. Mr Noah T. 
Clarke is very anxious a^id sends telegrams 
to Andrew Chesebrb every day to go and 
see his brother. 

September 30. — To-day the ** Benjamin" of 



1864 181 

the family reached home under the care of Dr 
J. Byron Hayes, who was sent to Washington 
after him, I went over to Mr Noah T. 
Clarke's to see him and found him just a 
shadow of his former self. However, "hope 
springs eternal in the human breast " and he 
says he knows he will soon be well again. This 
is his thirtieth birthday and it is glorious that 
he can spend it at home. 

October i. — Mr Noah T. Clarke accom- 
panied his brother to-day to the old home 
in Naples and found two other spldier 
brothers, William and Joseph, had just arrived 
x)n leave of absence from the army so the 
mother's heart sang " Praise God from whom 
all blessings flow." The fourth brother 
has also returned to his home in Illinois, 
disabled. 

November. — They are holding Union Revival 
Services in town now. One evangelist from 
out of town said he would call personally at 
the homes and ask if all were Christians. 
Anna told Grandmother if he came here she 
should tell him about her. Grandmother said 
we must each give an account for ourselves. 
Anna said she should tell him about her little 
Grandmother anyway. We saw him coming 
up the walk about 1 1 a.m. and Anna went to 
tne door and asked him in. They sat down m 
the parlor and he remarked about the pleasant 
weather and Canandaigua such a beautuul town 
and the people sp cultured. She said yes, she 
found the town every way desirable and the 



Itt VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

people pleasant, though she had heard it 
remarked that strangers found it hard to get 
acquainted and that you had to have a resi- 
dence above the R. R. track and give a satis- 
factory answer as to who your Grandfather 
was, before admittance was granted to the 
best society. He said he had been kindly 
received everywhere. She said "everybody 
likes ministers." (He was quite handsome 
and young.) He asked her how long she 
had lived here and she told him nearly all of 
her brief existence ! She said if he had asked 
her how old she was she would have told him 
she was so young that Will Adams last May 
was appointed her g^uardian. He asked how 
many there were in the family and she said her 
Grandmother, her sister and herself. He said, 
" They are Christians, I suppose." " Yes," she 
said, **my sister is a S. S. teacher and my 
Grandmother was bom a Christian, about 80 
years ago." " Indeed," he said. " I would 
like to see her." Anna said she would have 
to be excused as she seldom saw company. 
When he arose to go he said, "My dear 
young lady, I trust that you are a Christian." 
" Mercy yes," she said, "years ago." He said 
he was very glad and hoped she would let her 
light shine. She said that was what she always 
tried to do and bade him good morning. She 
told Grandmother she presumed he would say 
"he had not found so great faith, no not in 
Israel." 

We have Teachers' meetings now and Mrs 
George Wilson leads and instructs us on the 



1864 183 

Sunday School lesson for the following Sunday. 
We met at Mrs Worthington's this evening. 
I think Mrs Wilson knows Barnes notes and 
the Westminster Catechism and the Bible 
from beginning to end. '' 



x865 

March 5. — I have just read President 
Lincoln's second inaug^ural address. It only 
takes five minutes to read it but» oh, how 
much it contains. 

The tender words with which President 
Lincoln closed this inaugural address were 
as follows: — 

" If we shall suppose that American slaviery is one 
of those offences which in the Providence of God 
must needd come, but which having continued 
through the appointed time, He now wills tp remove, 
and th&t He gives to both North and South this 
terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the 
offence came, shall we discern therein any departure 
from those divine attributes which the believers in a 
living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we 
hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge 
of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills 
that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood 
drawn with the lash shall be paid with another 
drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years 
ago, so stiU it must be said, ' The judgments of the 
Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

" With malice toward none, with charity for all ; 
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the 

184 



1866 186 

right — ^let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; 
to bind up the nation's wounds ; to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his 
orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
the nations.'^ 

March 20. — Hardly a day passes that we 
do not hear news of Union victories^ Every- 
one predicts that the war is nearly at an end. 

March 29. — An officer arrived here from the 
front yesterday and he said that, on Saturday 
morning, shortly after the battle commenced 
which resulted so gloriously for the Union in 
front of Petersburg, President Lincoln, accom- 
panied by General Grant and staff, started for 
the battlefield, and reached there in time to 
witness the close of the contest and the bring- 
ing in of the prisoners. His presence was 
immediately recognized and created the most 
intense enthusiasm. He afterwards rode over 
the battlefield, listened to the report of General 
Parke to General Grant, and added his thanks 
for the great service rendered in checking the 
onslaught of the Rebels and in capturing so 
many of their number. I read this morning 
the order of Secretary Stanton for the flag 
raising- on Fort Sumter. It reads thus : 
"War department, Adjutant General's office, 
AVashingrton, March 27^1, 1865, General orders 
No. 50. . Ordered, first : That at the hour of 
noon, on the 14th day of April, 1865, Brevet 
Major General Aderson will raise and plant 
upon the ruins of Fort . $umter, in Charleston 



186 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

Harbor, the same U.S. flag which floated over 
the battlements of this fort during the rebel 
assault, and which was lowered and saluted by 
him and the small force of his command when 
the works were evacuated on the 14th day of 
April 1 86 1 . Second, That the flag, when raised 
be saluted by 100 g^ns from Fort Sumter and 
by a national salute from every fort and rebel 
battery that fired upon Fort Sumter. Third, 
That suitable ceremonies be had upon the 
occasion, under the direction of Major-General 
William T. Sherman, whose military operations 
compelled the rebels to evacuate Charleston, 
or, in his absence, under the charge of Major- 
General Q. A. Gillmore, commanding the 
department. Among the ceremonies will be 
the delivery of a public address by the Rev. 
Henry Ward Beecher. Fourth, that the naval 
forces at Charleston and their Commander on 
that station be invitejd to participate in the 
ceremonies of the occasion. By order of the 
President of the United States E. M. Stanton, 
Secretary of War." 

Aprils 1865. — What a month this has been. 
On the 6th of April Governor Fenton issued 
this proclamation : " Richmond has fallen. 
The wicked men who governed the so-called 
Confederate States have fled their capital, 
shorn of their power and influence. The 
rebel armies have been defeated^ broken and 
scattered. Victory everywhere attends our 
banners and our armies, and we are rapidly 
moving to the closing scenes of the war. 



1866 187 

Through the self-sacrifice and heroic devotion 
of our soldiers, the life of the republic has 
been saved and the American Union pre- 
served. I, Reuben E. Fenton, Governor of 
the State o( New York, do designate Friday, 
the 14th of April, the day appointed for the 
ceremony of raising the United States flag 
on Fort Sumter, as a day of thanksgiving, 
prayer and praise to Almighty God, for the 
signal blessings we have received at His 
hands," 

Saturday, April 8. — The cannon has fired 
a salute of 36 guns to celebrate the fall of 
Richmond. This evening there were fire- 
works, illuminations and bonfires. 

Sunday y April 9. — The Te Deum was sung 
at church this morning. 

Monday^ April 10. — Bells have rung all 
day since the news came of Lee's surrender. 
Everybody is wild with excitement. The 
stores were closed and prayers offered and 
addresses given on the square. A procession 
of men, women and children paraded the 
streets. Some of our most staid and dignified 
citizens were on a dray ringing bells, waving 
hats and giving vent to their enthusiasm in 
most unheard of ways. In the evening there 
was a grand illumination. A transparency in 
the porch of the Congregational church 
brougbt out " Hallelujah " in brightest light. 

On the 14th of April, this day appointed 



186 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

for thanksgiving for Union victories, our dear 
president, Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated. 
The news came on Saturday morning, 
April 1 5. — I have felt sick over it all day and 
so has every one that I have seen. All ^eem 
to feel as though they had lost a personal 
friend, and tears flow plenteously. How soon 
has sorrow followed upon the heels of joy! 
One week agb to-night we were celebratini 
our victories with loud acclamations of mirtl 
and good cheer. Now every one is silent 
and sad and the earth and heavens seem 
clothed in sack-cloth. The bells have been 
tolling this afternoon. The flags are all at 
half mast, draped with mourning, an<| on every 
store and dwelling - house some sign of the 
nation's loss is visible. Just after breakfast 
this morning, I looked out of the window and 
saw a group of men listening to the reading of 
a mornmg paper, and I feared from their silent, 
motionless interest that something dreadful 
had happened, but I was not prepared to hear 
of the cowardly murder of our President. And 
William H. Seward, too, I suppose cannot sur- 
vive his wounds. Oh, how horrible it is! I 
went down town shortly after I heard the news^ 
and it was wonderful to see the effect of the 
intelligence upon everybody, small or great, 
rich or poor. Every one was talking low, 
with sad and anxious looks. But we know 
that God still reigns and will do what is best 
for us all. Perhaps we're "putting our trust 
too much in princes," forgetting the Great 
Ruler, who alone can create or destroy, and 



1865 189 

dlerefore .He has taken from us the arm of 
flesh that we may lean more confidingly and 
entirely upon Him. I trust that the men who 
committed these foul deeds will soon be brought 
to justice. 

Sunday, Easter Day, April i6. — I went to 
church this morning. The pulpit and choir 
were covered with flags festooned with crape. 
Although a very disagreeable day, the house 
was well filled. The first hymn sung was 
" Oh God our help in ages past, our hope 
for years to come." Dr Daggett's prayer, I 
can never forget, he alluded so beautifully to 
the nation's loss, and prayed so fervently that 
the God of our fathers might still be our God, 
through every calamity or affliction, however 
severe or mysterious. All seemed as deeply 
affected as though each one had been suddenly 
bereft of their best friend. The hymn sung 
after the prayer, commenced with **Yes, the 
Redeemer rose." Dr Daggett said that he had 
intended to preach a sermon upon the resur- 
rection. He read the psalm beginning, *' Lord 
thou hast been our dwelling-place in all genera- 
tions." His text was " That our faith and hope 
might be in God." He commenced by saying, 
" I feel as you feel tliis morning : our sad hearts 
have all throbbed in unison since yesterday 
morning when the telegram announced to us 
Abraham Lincoln is shot." He said the last 
week would neyer be forgotten, for never had 
any of us seen 'one come in with so much joy, 
that went out with so mpch sorrow. His whole 



190 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

sermon related to the President's life and death, 
and, in conclusion, he exhorted us not to be 
despondent, for he was confident that the ship 
of state would not go down, though the helms- 
man had suddenly been taken away while the 
promised land was almost in view. He prayed 
for our new President, that he might be filled 
with grace and power from on High, to perform 
his high and holy trust. On Thursday we are 
to have a union meeting in our church, but 
it will not be the day of general rejoicing 
and thanksgiving we expected. All noisy 
demonstrations will be omitted. In Sunday 
school the desk was draped with mourning, 
and the flag at half-mast was also festooned 
with crape. Mr Noah T. Clarke opened the 
exercises with the hymn " He leadeth me,'' 
followed by ** Though the days are dark with 
sorrow.'* *'We know not what's before us," 
** My days are gliding swiftly by." Then, Mr 
Clarke said that we always meant to sing 
"America," after every victory, and last 
Monday he was wondering if we would not 
have to sing it twice to-day, or add another 
verse, but our feelings have changed since then. 
Nevertheless he thought we had better sing 
'* America," for we certainly ought to love our 
country more than ever, now that another, and 
such another, martyr, had given up his life for it. 
So we sang it. : Then he talked to the children 
and said that last Friday was supposed to be th^ 
anniversary of the day upon wnich our Lord 
was crucified, and though, at the time the dread- 
ful deed was committed, every one felt the day 



1865 191 

to be the darkest one the earth ever knew ; 
yet since then, the day has been called '* Good 
Friday," for it was the death of Christ, which 
gave life everlasting to all the people. So 
he thought that life would soon come out of 
darkness, which now overshadows us all, and 
that the death of Abraham Lincoln might 
yet prove the nation's life in God's own most 
mysterious way. 

Wednesday evening, April 19, 1865. — This 
being the day set for the funeral of Abraham 
Lincoln at Washington, it was decided to hold 
the service to-day, instead of Thursday, as 
previously announced in the Congregational 
church. All places of business were closed 
and the bells of the village churches tolled 
from half past ten till eleven o'clock. It is the 
fourth anniversary of the first bloodshed of the 
war at Baltimore. It was said to-day, that 
while the services were being held in the 
White House and Lincoln's body lay in state 
under the dome of the capitol, that more than 
twenty-five millions of people all over the 
civilised world were gathered in their churches 
weeping over the death of the martyred Presi- 
dent. We met at our church at half after ten 
o'clock this morning. The bells tolled until 
eleven o'clock^ when the services commenced. 
The church was beautifully decorated ' with 
flags and black and white cloth, -wreaths, 
mottoes and flowers, the galleries and al^I. 
The whole effect was finei ' The)re! • Was a 
shield '-beneiatli the ^trch df th^ ■ ptiJpit Svith 



192 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

this text upon it : '* The memory of the just 
is blessed ' It was beautiful. Under the 
choir • loft the picture of Abraham Lincoln 
hung amid the flags and drapery. The motto, 
beneath the gallery, was this text : " Know ye 
that the Lord he is God." The four pastors 
of the place walked in together and took seats 
upon the platform, which was constructed for 
the occasion. The choir chanted *' Lord, Thou 
has been our dwelling-place in all genera- 
tions," and then the Episcopal rector, Rev. 
Mr Leffingrwell, read from the psalter, and 
Rev. Dr Daggett followed with prayer. Judge 
Taylor was then called upon for a short address, 
and he spoke well, as he always does. The 
choir sang '*God is our refuge and our 
strength." 

May ID. — Jeff Davis was captured to-day at 
Irwinsville, Ga., when he was attempting to 
escape in woman's apparel. Mr Green drew 
a picture of him, and Mr Finley made photo- 
graphs from it. We bought one as a souvenir 
of the war. 

The big headlines in the papers this morn- 
ing say, '* The hunt is up. He brandisheth a 
bowie-knife but yieldeth to six solid arguments. 
At Irwinsville, Ga., about daylight on the loth 
instant, Col. Prichard, commanding the 4th 
Michigan Cavalry, captured Jeff Davis, family 
and staff. They will be forwarded under 
strong guard without delay." The flags have 
been flying all day, and every one is about 
as pleased over the manner of his capture as 



1865 198 

over the fact itself. Lieutenant Hathaway, 
one of the ^taff, is >a friend of Mr Manning 
Wells, and he was pretty sure he would follow 
Davis, so we were not surprised to see his 
name among the captured. Mr Wells says 
he is as fine a horseman as he ever saw. 

M(J^ 25.-— I wish that I could have been in 
Washington this week, to have witnessed the 
grand review of Meade's and Sherman's armies. 
The newspaper accounts are most thrilling. 
The review commenced on Tuesday morning 
and lasted two days. It took over six hours for 
Meade's army to pass the grand stand, which 
was erected in front of^the President's house. 
It was witnessed by the President, Generals 
Grant, Meade, and Snerman, Secretairy Stanton, 
and many others in high authority. At ten 
o'clock, Wednesday morning, Sherman's army 
commenced to pass in review. His men did 
not show the sig^s of hsirdship and suffering 
which marked the appearance of the Army 
of the Potomac. The scenes enacted were 
historic and wonderful. Flags were flying 
everywhere, and windows, doorsteps and side- 
walks were crowded with people, eager to get 
a view of the grand armies. The city was 
as full of strangers, who had come to see 
the sight, as on Inauguration Day. Very soon, 
all that are left of the companies, who went 
from here, will be marching home, " with glad 
and gallant tread/' 



z866 

February 13. — Our brother James was 
married to-day to Louise Livingston James 
of New York City. 

February 20, 1866. — Our society is going 
to hold a fair for the Freedmen, in the Town 
Hall. Susie Daggett and I have been there 
all day to see about the tables and stoves. 
We got Mrs Binks to come and help us. 

February 21. — Been at the hall all day, 
trimming the room. Mr Thompson and Mr 
Backu3 came down and if they had not helped 
us we would not have done much. Mr Backus 
put up all the principal drapery and made it 
look beautiful. 

February 22. — At the hall all day. The 
fair opened at 2 p.m. We had quite a crowd 
in the evening and took in over three hundred 
dollars. Charlie Hills and Ellsworth Paggett 
stayed there all night to take care of the hall. 
We had a fish pond, a grab bag and a post- 
office. Anna says they had all the smart 
people in the post-office to write the letters, 
— Mr Morse, Miss Achert, Albert Granger 

194 



1866 1A5 

and herself. Some one asked Albert Giranger 
if his law business was good and he said one 
man thronged into his office one day. 

February 23. — ^We took in two hundred 
dollars to-day at the fair. We wound up 
with an auction. We asked Mrs Geoi^e 
Wtllson if she could not write a poem express- 
ing our thanks to Mr Backus and she steppcki 
aside for abotit five minutes and handed us 
Che foUdwing lines which we sent to him. 
We think it is about the nicest thing in the 
whole fain 

** Id ancient time the God of Wine 
They crowned with vintage of the vine. 
And sung his praise with song and glee 
And all their best of minstrelsy. 
The> Backus whom we honor now 
Would scorn to wreathe his generous brow 
With hea:then emblems — ^better he 
will love bur gratitude to se6 
Expressed in all the happy faices 
Assembled in these.pleasantplac.es. 
May joy attend his footsteps here 
And crown him in a brighter sphere.'' 

February 24. — Susie Daggett' and I went 
to the hall this morning to cle^n up! We 
sent back the dishes, not one broken, and. 
disposed of everything but the tables and 
stoves, which were to be taken away tihis 
afternoon. We feel quite ^tisfied with the 
receipts so far, but the expenses will be 
considerable. 

In Qutario County Times of the foUowii^ 
week we find this card of thanks : 



196 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

February 28, — The Fair for the benefit of 
the Freedmen, held in the Town Hall on 
Thursday and Friday of last week was emin- 
ently successful, and the young ladies take 
this method of returning their sincere thanks 
to the people of Canandaigua and vicinity 
for their generous contributions and liberal 
patronage. It being the first public enterprise 
in which the Society has ventured indepeiiid- 
eiidy» the young ladies, were somewhat fearful 
of tne result, but having met with such generous 
responses from every quarter they feel assured 
that they need never again doubt of success 
in any similar attempt so long as Canandaigua 
contains so many large hearts and correspond- 
ing purses. But .our village cannot have all, the 
piraise this time. The Society is particularly 
indebted to Mr F. F. Thompson and Mr S. 
D. Backus of New York City, for their very 
substantial aid, not only in gifts and unstinted 
patronage, but for their invaluable labor in 
the decoration of the hall and conduct of the 
Fair. But for them most of the manual 
labor would have fallen upon the ladies. 
The thanks of the Society are especially due, 
also, to those ladies who assisted persotfially 
with their superior knowledge and older experi- 
ence. Also to Mr W- P* Fiske for his valuable 
services as cashier, and to Messrs Daggett, 
Chapin and Hills for services at the door; 
and to all the little boys and girb who 
helped in so many ways. 

The receipts amounted to about $490, and 
thanks to our cashier, the money is all good. 



1866 197 

and will soon be on its way carrying substantial 
visions of something to eat and to wear to 
at least a few of the poOr Freedmen of the 
South. 

By order of Society, 

Carrie C. Richards, Prest. 
Emma H. Wheeler, Sec'y. 

Mr Editor — ^I expected to see an account of the 
Yoang Ladies^' Fair in your last number, but only 
saw a very handsome acknowledgment by the ladies 
to the citizens. Your ^ local '* must have been absent ; 
and I beg the privil^e in behalf of myself and many 
others of doing tardy justice to the successful efforts 
of the Aid Society at their debut February 22nd. 

Grotham furnished an artist sind an architect, and 
the Society did the rest. The d^orations were in 
excellent taste, and so were the young ladies. The 
eatables were very toothsome. I'he skating pond 
was never in better condition. On entering the 
hall I paused fir^t before the table of toys, fancy 
work and perfumery. Here was the President, and 
I hope I shall be pardoned for saying that no 
President since the days of Washington can compare 
with the President of this Society. Then I visited 
a candy table, and hesitated a long time before 
deciding which I would rath^ eat, the delicacies 
that were sold, or the charming creatures who sold 
them. One delicious moirsel, in a pink silk, was so 
tempting that I seriously contemplated eating her 
with a spoon — waterfall and all. [By the way, how 
do we know that the Romans wore waterfalls? 
Because Marc Antony, in his funeral oration on 
Mr Caesar, exclaimed, *' O water fall was there, my 
couptrymen I '*] At this point my attention was 
attracted by a fish pond. I tried my luck, caught 
a whale, and seeing all my friends beginning to 



19S VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

blubber, I determined to visit the old woman who 
lived in a shoe. — ^She was very glad to se^ me. 
I bought one of her children, which the Society 
can redeem for $i,ooo in smoking caps. 

The fried oysters were delicious; a great many 
of the bivalves got into a stew, and I helped several 
of them out Delicate ice cream, nicely ** baked in 
cowld ovens," was destroyed in immense quantities. 
I scream when I remember the plates full I devoured, 
and the number of bright women to whom I paid 
my devours. Beautiful cigar girls sold fragrant 
Havanas, and bit off the ends at five centd apiece, 
extra. The fair post-mistress and her fair clerks, 
so fair that they were almost fairies, drove a very 
thriving business. 

It was altogether a '^g^reat moral show." — Let 
no man say hereafter that the young ladies of 
Canandaigua are uneducated in all that makes women 
lovely and useful Anna Dickinson has no mission 
to this town. The members of this Society have 
won the admiration of all their friends, and especially 
of the most devote of their servants. Q. E. D. 

if I had written that article, I should have 
given the praise to Susie Daggett, for it 
belongs to her. 

Sunday, June 24. ^— My Sunday School 
scholars are learning the shorter Catelthism. 
One recited thirty-five answers to questions 
to-day, another twenty -six, another twenty, 
the others eleven. Very well indeed. They 
do not see why it is called the ''shorter** 
Catechism! They all had their ambrotypes 
taken with me yesterday at Finley's — Mary 
Hoyt, Fannie and Ella Lyon, Ella Wood, 
pii^ \7^xi Tyne, Mary Vanderbrook, Jennie 



1866 199 

Whitlaw and Katie Neu. They are all going 
to dress in white and sit on die froQt seat 
in church at my wedding! Grandmother had 
Mrs Gooding make individual fruit cakes for 
each of them and also some for e^^ch member 
of our sewing society. 

Thursday, June 21.— We went to a lawn 
fete at Mrs F. F. Thompson's this afternoon. 
It was a beautiful sight. The flowers^ the 
grounds, the young people and the music all 
combined to make the occasion perfect. 

Canandaigua is the summer home of Mrs Thompson, 
who has previously given the village a children's play- 
ground, a swimming school,, a hospital and a home 
for the aged, and &s year (191 1) has presented a 
park at a beauty spot at foot of Canandaigua Lak^ 

June 28. — Dear Abbie Clark and Captain 
Williams were married in the Congregational 
church this evening. The church was trimmed 
beautifully and Abbie looked sweet. We 
attended the reception afterwards at her house. 
'* May calm and sunshine hallow their clasped 
hands/' 



July 15, 1866. — The girls of the society 
have sent me my flag bed quilt, which they 
have just finished. It was hard work quilting 
such hot days but it is done beautifully. Bessie 
Seymour wrote the names on the stars. In 
the center they used six stars for ** Three 



SOO VILLAGE UFE IN AMERICA 

rousing cheers for the Union." The names 
on the others are Sarah McCabe, Mary 
Paul, Fannie Paul, Fannie Palmer, Nettie 
Palmer, Susie Daggett, Fannie Pierce, Sarah 
Andrews, Lottie Clark, Abbie Williams, Carrie 
Lamport, Isadore Blodget^, Nannie Corson, 
Laura Chapin, Mary r. Fiske, Lucilla F. 
Pratt, Jennie H. Hazard, Sarah H. Foster, 
Mary Jewett, Mary C, Stevens, Etta Smith, 
Cornelia Richards, Ella Hildreth, Emma 
Wheeler, ^fary Wheeler, Mrs Pierce, Alice 
Jewett, Bessie Seymour, Clara Coleman, Julia 
Phelps. It kept the girls busy to get Abbie 
Clark's quilt and mine finished within one 
month. They hope that the rest of the girls 
will postpone their nuptials till there is a 
change in the weather. Mercury stands 9P 
degree in the shade. 

JtUy 19, 1866. — Our wedding day. We saw 
the dear little Grandmother, God bless her, 
watching us from the window as we drove 
away. 

Alexandria Bay, July 26. — Anna writes me 
that Charlie Wells said he had always wanted 
a set of Clark's Commentaries, but I had 
carried off the entire Ed. 

July 28. — As we were changing boats at 
Burlington, Vt, for Saratoga, to our surprise, 
we met Captain and Abbie Williams, but could 
only stop a moment. 



1867 fOl 

Saratoga, 29/A. — We heard Rev. Theodore 
Cuyler preach to-day from the text, '* Demas 
ham forsaken me, having loved this present 
world" He leads devotional exercises every 
morning in the parlors of the Columbian 
Hotel. I spoke to him this morning and he 
saicTmy Caither was one of his best and earliest 
friends. 

Canandaigua, S^tember i. — ^A party of us 
went down to the Canandaigua hotel this 
morning to see President Johnson, General 
Grant and Admiral Farragut and other digni- 
taries. The train stopped about half an hour 
and they all gav^ brief speeches. 

S^tember 2. — Rev. Darius Sackett preached 
for Dr Daggett this evening. 

July 27, 1867. — Col. James M. Bull was 
buiried from the home of Mr Alexander 
Howell to-day, as none of his family reside 
here now. 

November 13, 1867. — Our brother John and 
wife and baby Pearl have gone to London, 
England, to live. 

December 28, 1867. — A large party of 
Canandaiguans went over to Rodiester last 
evening to hear Charles Dickens' lecture, and 
enjoyed it more than I can possibly express. 
H.e was quite hoarse and had small bills dis- 



tot VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

tribated through the Opera house widi die 
annoancement : 



MR CHARLES DICKENS 

Begi indtdgoice tot a Severe OM, but hojpts Hs 
effects inej not be very peraeptiUe after a fievr 

UDUUttev xbeadmff* 
Mdaj, Dweaber 27th, 1807. 



We brought these notices home with us for 
souvenirs* He looks exactly like his pictures. 
It was worth a great deal just to look upon 
the man who wrote Litde Dorrit, David 
Copperfield and all the other books, which 
have delighted us so much. We hope that 
he will live to write a great many more. He 
spoke very appreciatively of his enthusiastic 
reception in this country and almost apologised 
for some of the opinions that he had expressed 
in his ** American Notes/' which he published, 
after his first visit here, twenty-five years ago. 
He evidendy thinks that the United States of 
America are quite worth while. 

August 6, 1 87 1. — Under the auspices of 
the Y.M.C.A., Hon. George H. Stuart, 
President of the U. S. Christian Commission, 
spoke in an open air meeting on the square 
this afternoon and in our church this evening. 
The house was packed and such eloquence I 
never heard from mortal lips. He ought to 



187S tOS 

be called the Whitfield of America. He told 
of the good the Christian Commission had 
done before the war and since. Such war 
stories I never heard. They took up a collec- 
tion which must have amounted to hundreds 
of dollars. 

London, Atigust^ 1872. — John sent for Aunt 
Ann Field and James, his wife and me to 
come to England to visit him and we have 
been here nearly a month. Mr Alexander 
Howell and Mr Henry Chesebro are here and 
came to see us to-day. On our voyage over, 
U. S. Grant, Jr., wasi one of our fellow 
passengers and boarded the steamer from a 
tug boat which came down the bay alongside, 
when we had been out half an hour. President 
Grant was with him and stood on deck, 
smoking the proverbial cigar. We were glad * 
to see him and the passengers gave him three 
cheers and three -times three, with the greatest 
enthusiasm. 

August 8. — To-day we heard by cable the 
sad news that our dear Grandmother is dead. 
It does not seem possible that we shall never 
see her again on this earth. She took such 
an interest in our journey and just as we 
started I put my dear little Abigail Beak 
Clarke in her lap to receive her parting bless- 
ing. As we left the house she sat at the 
front window aiid saw us go and smiled her 
farewell. Little did I dream that it was our 
last look on earth of her sweet face. 



904 VILLAGE LIFE IN ABfERICA 

^Aftgust 20. — Anna has written how often 
she prayed that "He who holds the winds 
in his fists and the waters in the hollow of 
his hands, would care for us and bring us to 
our desired haven/' She had received one 
letter, telling of our safe arrival and how much 
we enjoyed going about London, when she 
was suddenly taken ill and Dr Hayes said she 
could never recover. Anna's letter came, after 
ten days, telling us all the sad news, and how 
Grandmother looked out of the window the last 
night before she was taken ill, and up at the 
mo6n and stars aiid said how beautiful they 
were. Anna says, "How can I ever write it.? 
Our dear little Grandmother died on my bed 
to-day." 

September i. — Anna has come to England 
to live with John for the present. 

From the New York Evangelist of August 
15, 1872, by Rev. Samuel Pratt, D.D. 

"Died, at Canandaigua, N. Y., August 15, 
1872, Mrs Abigail Field Beals, widow of 
Thomas Beals, in the 89th year of her age. 
Mrs Beals whose maiden name was Field, 
was born in Madison, Conn., April 7, 1784; 
She wis a sister of Rev. David Dudley 
Field, D. D., of Stockbrrdge, Mass., and of 
Rev. Timothy Field, first pastor of the 
Congregational church of Canandaigua. She 
came to Canandaigua with her brother, 
Ttmothy, in 1800. In 1805 she was married 



187S t06 

1 

to Thomas Seals, Esq., with whom she lived 
nearly sixty years, until he fell asleep. They 
had eleven children, of whom only four 
survive. In 1807 she and her husband 
united with the Congregational church, of 
which they were ever liberal and faithful 
supporters. Mrs, Beals loved the good old 
ways and kept her house in the simple and 
substantial style of the past. She herself 
belonged to an age of which she was the 
la^t. With s^reat dignity and courtesy of 
manner which repelled too much familiarity, 
she combined a sweet and winning grace, 
which attracted all to her, so that the youth, 
while they would almost involuntarily ' rise up 
before her,' yet loved to be in her presence 
and called her blessed She possessed in a 
« rare degree the ornament of a meek and quiet 
spirit and lived in an atmosphere of love and 
peace. Her home and room were to her 
children and her children's children what 
Jerusalem was to the saints of old. There 
they loved to resort and the saddest thing 
in her death is the simderirig of that tie which 
bound so many generations together. She 
never ceased to take a deep interest in the 
prosperity of the beautiful village of which 
ishe and her' husband were the pioneers, and 
for which they did so much and in the church 
of which she was the oldest mefnber. Her 
mind retained, its activity to the last and her 
heart was warm^ in sympathy with every good 
work. While she was weH informed in all 
current events, she most delighted in whatever 



406 VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA 

concerned the Kingdom. Her Bible and 
religious books were her constant companions 
and her conversation told much of her better 
thoughts, which were in Heaven, Living so 
that those who kn6w her never saw in her 
anything but fitness for Heaven, she patieiidy 
awaited the Master's call and went down to 
her grave in a full age like a shock of corn 
fully ripe that com^th in its season." 

I don't think I shall keep a diary any more, 
only occasionally jot down things of import- 
ance. Mr Noah T. Clarke's brother got 
possession of my little diary in some way one 
day and when he returned it I found written 
on the fly-leaf this inscription to the diary : 

*' You'd scarce expect a volume of my size 
To hold so much that's beautiful and wise, 
And though the heartless world might call me cheap 
Yet from my pages some much joy shall reap. 
As monstrous oaks from little acorns grow. 
And kindly shelter all who toil below, 
So my future greatness and the good I do 
Shall bless, if not the world, at least a few." 

I think I will close my old journal with the 
mottoes which I find upon an old well-worn 
writing book which Anna used for jotting 
down ner youthful deeds. On the cover I find 
inscribed, " Try to be somebody," and on the 
back of the same book, as if trying to console 
herself for unexpected achievement which she 
could not prevent, " Some must be great !" 

# # # # # # 



1880 Wt 



JUNE Z7, X88OL 

Our dear Anna was married to-day to Mr 
Alonzo A. Cummings of Oakland, (JaL, and 
has gone there to live. I am sorry to have 
her go so far away, but love annihilates space. 
There is no real separation, except in aliena- 
tion of spirit, and that can never come — ^to us. 



THE END 



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